Viral Influencer Hailey Welch’s Meme-Inspired Crypto Sees 90% Plunge After Alleged Insider Dump

As a researcher with years of experience in the cryptocurrency market and a keen eye for spotting red flags, I must say that the launch of Haliey Welch’s Hawk Tuah ($HAWK) on the Solana network leaves me with a heavy dose of skepticism. The rapid pump and subsequent dump, coupled with the overwhelming control of tokens by insiders, smacks strongly of a classic rug pull.


Haliey Welch, a well-known figure in viral content, has recently introduced her own cryptocurrency, Hawk Tuah ($HAWK), which is inspired by memes, on the Solana platform. However, the debut of this currency was marked by controversy, as it experienced a rapid increase in value before it seemed that insiders sold off their holdings. This sudden sell-off led to a correction of more than 90%.

Based on current market figures, the price for one token of Welch’s meme-based cryptocurrency reached a peak of 0.049 SOL, but soon fell dramatically to approximately 0.0035 SOL per token at the moment this text was written. At its highest point, the cryptocurrency’s total market value soared to an impressive $490 million, only to drop significantly to around $35 million as shown by Dexscreener data.

🚨ALERT: INFLUENCER CAUGHT RUNNING AWAY WITH INVESTMENTS (Rug Pull)🚨

— De.Fi Antivirus Web3 🛡️ (@De_FiSecurity) December 5, 2024

As an analyst, I’ve been examining data from Bubblemaps and found some intriguing insights regarding a particular cryptocurrency. It appears that nearly all (approximately 97.5%) of this digital currency’s supply was in the hands of insiders. Once its market capitalization began to escalate, these insiders swiftly offloaded their holdings onto the market. This rapid selling, in turn, triggered a significant price drop.

In response to accusations about controversies and rug pulls, Welch clarified on social media that no tokens were sold by the project team and none were given to Key Opinion Leaders for free. The team’s statement also highlighted that they had a 10% allocation locked for a year, with vesting over three years. The remaining tokens are being distributed as per the token economics into various wallets.

Copy and pasting:

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

— Haliey Welch (@HalieyWelchX) December 4, 2024

The team mentioned that they distributed 0.3% of the tokens into a major decentralized exchange on Solana, named Radium, as liquidity, whereas 3% were added to a Meteora liquidity pool and destroyed (burned).

In an attempt to thwart token sniping at the outset, the team explained their decision to impose steep fees. However, initial data reveals that certain wallets were able to swiftly acquire a significant share of HAWK tokens soon after its launch, later offloading them.

On the social media site X (previously called Twitter), multiple users have shared stories about substantial financial setbacks due to investing in a cryptocurrency inspired by internet memes. One individual even posted a picture of their digital wallet showing a loss of around $43,000 from this particular token.

Several individuals have claimed that they submitted complaints to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accusing Hailey Welch and her team, involved in the “project,” of manipulating investor opportunities.

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2024-12-05 17:33