Haliey Welch: Hawk Tuah girl breaks silence after disastrous memecoin launch $HAWK and suicide rumours

Welch, who shot to fame earlier this year with a viral TikTok video, had been uncharacteristically silent since the coin’s collapse on December 4, leading to rampant speculation online.

The $HAWK token, inspired by Welch’s meteoric rise to internet stardom, initially soared with a market cap of $490 million after its launch but plummeted by over 90% within hours. The coin’s pre-sale had raised $2.8 million, but investors allege that they collectively lost more than $151,000 in the crash. Welch had heavily promoted the token to her 2.6 million Instagram followers and on her podcast, Talk Tuah, but she was not named in a lawsuit filed against the project’s creators and promoters.

The suit, filed in New York’s Eastern District Court, accuses the Cayman Island-based Tuah The Moon Foundation and overHere Ltd, along with influencer Alex Larson Schultz, of using Welch’s brand to misrepresent the token as a registered security. Plaintiffs allege that the sellers deliberately targeted the American market, despite failing to register the cryptocurrency.

Since the coin’s collapse, Welch had not posted on social media or released new podcast episodes, fuelling concern among her fans. Unverified tweets claiming Welch has died by suicide have circulated on X (formerly Twitter), with some users mocking her absence, saying she “is still sleeping” following her last post.

However, Welch herself has taken to X as she puts to rest speculation about her whereabouts. She wrote: “I take this situation extremely seriously and want to address my fans, the investors who have been affected, and the broader community.

“I am 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. If you have experienced losses related to this, please contact Burwick Law using the link below: https://burwick.law/newclient. @BurwickLaw.”

Earlier, X user @FearBuck wrote: “Hailey Welch, aka Hawk Tuah Girl, has now been gone 2 weeks and hasn’t dropped any episodes of her Talk Tuah podcast since ‘going to sleep’ after rug-pulling millions in memecoin.”

User @Lowenaffchen started the suicide rumour, by jokingly saying: “Hawk Tuah may have killed herself. I asked my friend @jakatak4 who lives in Tennessee and he drove by her house and said there was an ambulance and a fire truck.”

One responding to the rumour: “Where are you lot hearing that Hawk Tuah girl dead?!” One asked: “Where is the hawk tuah girl bruh? She just scammed people and then faded off into the night? Devils work.”

But her latest post has prompted a flood of replies. One said: “Good morning Haliey. I hope you slept well.”

The defendants in the lawsuit, including overHere Ltd and its founder Clinton So, have denied any wrongdoing. “We have been extremely transparent about the limited scope and extent of our involvement in the Hawk Tuah token project,” an overHere spokesperson told Bloomberg. “We are confident that we have done nothing wrong.”