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The unexpected internet star Haliey Welch, known as “Hawk Tuah Girl,” is looking back on her recent cryptocurrency controversy with clear eyes. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, the 22-year-old expressed regret about her meme coin $HAWK, which dropped more than 90 percent from a market cap of nearly $500 million to under $30 million within hours last year.
“I hate that that’s even a thing,” Welch said. “Half of those people that done it were, like, my fans. They trusted me, like, guiding them to it. And I don’t know … It really hurt my feelings when it turned out the way it did. I wish it hadn’t have happened.” At the time of the drop, her crypto partners at the platform overHere did little to provide answers to investors about what went wrong.
“I see things a lot differently than I used to. My eyes are open a lot wider,” Welch added, noting that in the future she will keep in mind to “definitely be careful what you tie your name into and who you trust.” In the meantime, Welch is hoping to rebrand what people have come to associate her name with in order to move away from the crypto disaster and her original viral origin. “I’m hoping my podcast gets rebranded in the way I’m seeing it in my head — the vision I’ve got. And I hope it grows,” Welch said. She hopes to make the show “more girlier and more authentic to me.”
Last year, the YouTuber Stephen Findeisen, who is known for his hard-nosed investigations of crypto fraud, told Rolling Stone the launch of $HAWK was marred with problems from the start. “I think there were lots of signs this was not going to work,” he said. “They sold 17 percent of the tokens to insiders who had no lock-up for their tokens, while they only released three percent to the public for trading.”
Findeisen added: “I get the sense that Welch was misinformed, but also that Welch saw dollar signs and didn’t ask enough questions. Additionally, she didn’t seem to take it too seriously when she was confronted. I hope that she acknowledges the harm of what she did, intentional or not, and takes accountability to help her fans who lost money.”
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