‘Hawk tuah girl’ Hailey Welch’s crypto launch draws scrutiny

It was a social media catchphrase, then a merchandising opportunity and, finally, a cryptocurrency.

Now, the social media sensation who lent her viral “hawk tuah” moment to a new digital coin is the face of the latest controversy centred around crypto and what some are calling an all-too-familiar racket meant to trick people out of their money.

Influencer Hailey Welch, who shot to internet stardom this year thanks to a particularly viral interview clip, is pushing back on accusations that “HAWK,” the cryptocurrency she helped launch this week, is a scam after its price plummeted.

Welch said on X that she and the people behind the coin have not sold any of their holdings.

The coin’s market capitalisation was around $US28 ($A43) million as of Thursday afternoon, down from nearly $US500 ($A782) million when it peaked Wednesday, according to DEX Screener, which monitors the price, trading volume and on-chain trades of various tokens.

YouTuber and crypto journalist Stephen Findeisen, who has amassed millions of followers on social media under the name Coffeezilla, confronted Welch in a live X Space audio conversation Wednesday, titled “The Hawk Truth”.

In clips of the conversation, which circulated on X, Welch’s team denied Findeisen’s accusations of “rug pulling,” a term used in the crypto world for projects in which a coin’s creators seek to build hype and drive up a coin’s price only for them to sell their holdings at a profit, which then leaves other investors with devalued tokens after prices drop dramatically.

“Influencers need to learn that meme coins are not funny when they come at the expense of your fans,” Findeisen told NBC News in an email.

Welch’s team blamed “snipers” — bots programmed to buy tokens immediately upon launch and sell when prices spike — for causing the market cap fluctuation.

In an X post Thursday, Welch wrote that her team “hasn’t sold one token” and that no key opinion leaders, or influential figures who generated buzz around the coin, were given free tokens. She added that they also tried to stop snipers by implementing high fees, which have now been dropped.

Representatives for Welch did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.