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Topics: Social Media, Money, Celebrity
Mia Williams
Better known as the 'Hawk Tuah' girl, Hailey Welch has spoken out about the cryptocurrency scandal that cost her fans millions.
Haliey Welch, 22, became famous almost overnight after taking part in a street interview that went majorly viral.
You might remember her as the 'Hawk Tuah' girl, as she advised people to ‘spit on that thang’ in the clip.
The street interview did so well that Welch was able to quit her job and start up a podcast, Talk Tuah with Haliey Welch.
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But the star faced a huge controversy after she delved into the world of cryptocurrency.
She launched a memecoin called '$HAWK token', which saw mass success before completely plummeting. At the time of its release, the coin rocketed to a value of $490 million (£393 million), but quickly flopped by more than 90 per cent - leading those who invested heavily to lose millions.
Welch first addressed the situation on Twitter, denying the 'rug pull' allegations: "Hawkanomics: Team hasn’t sold one token and not 1 KOL was given 1 free token. We tried to stop snipers as best we could through high fee’s in the start of launch on @MeteoraAG. Fee’s have now been dropped."
A lawsuit then followed, accusing that the coin’s creators of unlawfully promoting and selling the cryptocurrency 'without proper registration'.
Despite being the face of the coin, Welch actually avoided any legal trouble, as she was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit - though she addressed it by saying she was 'fully cooperating with and am committed to assisting the legal team representing the individuals impacted, as well as to help uncover the truth, hold the responsible parties accountable, and resolve this matter'.
After what felt like weeks of complete silence, she is now back on her podcast where she addressed the situation.
In the 'leaked' episode with YouTuber FaZe Banks, the star noted that she was told the coin would be a ‘long-term’ thing that would ‘change the way everybody thinks about crypto’ - but it turned out to be that exact opposite.
She said: "I feel really bad for all the people that got affected by it. It just didn’t go the way I planned."
Welch continued to say that the ‘biggest mistake’ was trusting the guy who was a ‘friend of a friend’ in taking on this crypto deal, adding: “I probably should have looked into him a little bit more.”
Welch said this guy was a ‘little bit weird’ on the day of the launch which made her ‘suspicious’.
But it seems as though her team have let her down, according to Banks, who called them out for allegedly 'leaking' the episode early on social media.
Posting on Twitter about the stipulations for his podcast appearance, he said: "These were nonstarters and we were told this episode would only ever see the light of day if we explicitly green lit it."
He prompted Welch to ‘fire everybody’, as he added: "Poor girl, it’s a wonder how she found herself in this position in the first place."
LADbible Group has contacted Welch's reps for comment.