‘Hawk Tuah’ girl Haliey Welch denies role in memecoin crash as markets get dangerous

Haliey Welch, better known online as the “Hawk Tuah” girl, is back, and no, she has not taken responsibility for her memecoin dip. In a recent interview with Channel 5, she says memecoin scams should be “normalized” by now. “It’s done every single day… like it’s normal at this point,” she says.

For the past year, Welch has kept a low profile after being involved in a memecoin scandal. While speaking with Andrew Callaghan of Channel 5, she has denied everything, OnlyFans account included.

Hawk Tuah girl still knows nothing about memecoins

Welch announced the launch of her Hawk Tuah coin, or $HAWK, in December 2024. In a matter of one day, the value of the coin fell from a whopping $500 million to a mere $25 million. This led to accusations, which Welch denies, that the coin was a “pump and dump” scheme.

As reported by Cryptopolitan, the SEC investigated her role in the failed $HAWK token project, and no charges were filed. Haliey told TMZ, “For the past few months, I’ve been cooperating with all the authorities and attorneys, and finally, that work is complete.”

Fast forward to now, she stands by, “I was not controlling the coin.”

Hailey Welch (Hawk Tuah) interview is out now on YouTube pic.twitter.com/TadJfzHeak

— Channel 5 (@Channel5iveNews) March 20, 2026

When asked about the FBI investigation into HAWK, she says, “He asked about a phantom wallet and types of coins, how much this one’s worth, like one cent, this one’s five cents. I don’t know anything about it. I have no clue. I’m dumb as a bag of rocks.”

Haliey Welch says she was made aware of the memecoin crash after her podcast. “After we finished all the podcasts, everybody went out of the room and looked concerned, and I’m like, what is going on? I don’t understand what’s happened. They said oh nothing, don’t worry about it. I pull up my TikTok, and the next thing I know, there are all these posts saying I’m going to jail.”

“This traumatised me, I wouldn’t come out of the house for like months.”

Crypto community on X goes after Haliey Welch

Coming clean? Speaking out? The crypto community will not have that. The sentiment on X is clear; many wonder how she is not in jail for fraud.

ZachXBT goes first. “She starts posting about meme coins […] entirety of CT tells her not to launch a token […] she launches meme coin anyway […] after she blames partners and disappears off social media with followers losing funds […]no one should feel bad for the “trauma.”

Another user states, “She’s not wrong about the reality — scams happen daily. But ‘normalized’ is the wrong take.” PENGU bull Metric points to the obvious other X users picked, “Really leaning into the ‘I’m so dumb you couldn’t possibly blame me’ trope.”

According to on-chain data, HAWK is down 75% in the last year alone. It is trading at $0.00002975. Hawk (HAWK) reached an all-time high of $0.0009016 and an all-time low of $0.058921. It’s now trading 96.70% below that peak.

HAWK’s trading volume stands at $6,101.41 in the last 24 hours, representing a 32.20% increase from one day ago.

Memecoin markets marked by scams

The memecoin market in 2025 and early 2026 is dominated by fraudulent activities. According to reports, up to 99% of new memecoins listed on platforms such as DexScreener are believed to be “potential scams” or “rug pulls,” with a higher incidence on the Solana network.

Reports indicate that ~98-99% of tokens listed on platforms such as Pump.fun exhibit behavior consistent with rug pulls, pump-and-dump schemes, or fraud, including supply control, wash trading, or liquidity draining.

The memecoin market cap today stands at $33.2 billion, down 0.3% over the last 24 hours.

Crypto scams in general have seen estimated inflows of $14-17 billion in 2025.