Hailey Welch, the social media influencer widely known as the ‘Hawk Tuah girl,’ says the collapse of the HAWK memecoin she promoted in 2024 and the public backlash that followed left her traumatized. Speaking to Andrew Callaghan of the Channel 5 YouTube channel, Welch acknowledged she was persuaded to lend her name to a project she did not fully understand. ‘You’ve got to be really careful what you put your name on,’ she said during the Friday interview.
Welch stated that she cooperated fully with a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe conducted in 2025, which ultimately cleared her of any wrongdoing. She maintained that she did not hold any of the funds generated by the memecoin launch and lacked the technical knowledge required to create such a token. Her account positions her as a promoter rather than an architect of the project.
According to Welch, the financial damage to ordinary investors was more limited than widely perceived. Her lawyer estimated that retail investors lost approximately $200,000 in total from the failed launch. Welch described those affected as ‘real people,’ framing the losses as meaningful even if the overall dollar figure was relatively modest.
Despite the FBI clearing her, Welch said she received death threats in the aftermath and spent months deliberately keeping a low profile. She described the experience as having taken a serious toll on her mental health. The social backlash, she indicated, was disproportionate to her actual role in the project.
Not everyone has accepted Welch’s characterization of events. Onchain investigator ZachXBT publicly dismissed calls for sympathy, stating that no one should feel bad for her reported trauma. He argued that the broader crypto community had warned her against launching a token before she proceeded, and that she subsequently blamed partners and withdrew from social media after followers lost money.
The HAWK memecoin launched in December 2024 and rapidly climbed to a market capitalization exceeding $490 million within hours of going live. It then collapsed by more than 91% the following day, dropping to a market cap of roughly $41 million. The dramatic rise and fall led many observers to characterize the episode as a rug pull.
Also in December 2024, an investor lawsuit was filed against the team and entities involved in creating and managing the memecoin launch, though Welch herself was not named as a defendant. The suit alleged that those entities sold unregistered securities. The legal proceedings remain separate from the FBI inquiry that cleared Welch of personal wrongdoing.
Originally reported by CoinTelegraph.
