‘Hawk Tuah’ Lady Added to Lawsuit Over Alleged Crypto Memecoin Fraud

Viral sensation Haliey Welch (higher generally known as the “Hawk Tuah” girl) has been pulled into an increasing federal class-action lawsuit accusing promoters and insiders of orchestrating a classy pump-and-dump scheme along with her namesake crypto token. The go well with, initially filed shortly after the Solana-based HAWK coin’s disastrous launch final yr, claims that the challenge was rigged from the begin to inflate its worth quickly earlier than crashing, permitting early holders to pocket hundreds of thousands whereas leaving on a regular basis traders holding nugatory property.

Current amendments now goal Welch (a former podcaster) herself, alongside along with her supervisor and enterprise entity, for allegedly taking part in key roles in hyping the token by means of deceptive guarantees about its options and potential, regardless of realizing (or ought to have identified) it lacked the technical spine to ship.

Misplaced cash in crypto? Name Florence.

That is legal professional promoting. No outcomes assured. pic.twitter.com/AMVikmxFGg

— Burwick Regulation (@BurwickLaw) November 14, 2025

Welch skyrocketed to web fame in 2024 after a candid road interview the place she delivered her now-infamous “hawk tuah” line, a playful quip a few bed room tip that shortly grew to become a cultural phenomenon. Leveraging the thrill, she constructed a large on-line following and launched a podcast, which was subsequently used to promote the HAWK token. Not like some other notorious “crypto queens” involved with billion-dollar schemes, this lawsuit alleges Welch solely obtained a couple of hundred thousand {dollars} for her position.

On the coronary heart of this controversy are memecoins. The development kicked off with Dogecoin in 2013, a tongue-in-cheek digital foreign money that includes a Shiba Inu canine meme that unexpectedly gained traction and even superstar endorsements. Lately, memecoins have surged in reputation, fueled by user-friendly platforms like Pump.enjoyable on the Solana blockchain, which make it straightforward for anybody to create and launch tokens with minimal limitations.

In different phrases, the HAWK debacle doesn’t exist in isolation; the lawsuit hyperlinks it to an online of comparable alleged rug pulls involving high-profile figures. Notably, even former President Donald Trump dipped into the memecoin enviornment round his January 2025 inauguration, endorsing an official Solana-based token that briefly soared earlier than plummeting in worth simply days later.

This TRUMP memecoin is only one of a wide range of examples of the concerns round Trump and people profiting off his presidency by means of numerous crypto-related initiatives and enterprise offers. Extra just lately, the Trump administration has confronted backlash over the alleged corruption associated with the former CEO of crypto exchange Binance.

Different notable memecoins coated within the lawsuit embrace LIBRA, which was touted by Argentine President Javier Melei, and MELANIA, which was related to the U.S. First Woman Melania Trump. The lawsuit alleges that the HAWK token’s collapse was a part of a broader sample of orchestrated rug pulls, with blockchain forensics linking the identical pockets clusters and ways to a number of high-profile memecoins.

Are Memecoins the Newest Crypto Fad to Come and Go?

Notably, the MarketVector Meme Coin Index, which tracks the six largest memecoins, is down 71% over the previous yr. Whereas Pump.enjoyable remains to be having fun with some success as a platform for launching new memecoins and has additionally launched its own token, although platform income has declined from a peak of $7 million in sooner or later in January to round $1 million per day at the moment, according to data from The Block.

The crypto market has lengthy been susceptible to fleeting developments that inflate huge bubbles earlier than bursting, leaving retail merchants within the mud. In response to the Chicago Journal of Worldwide Regulation, initial coin offerings (ICOs) raised over $27 billion by 2018 by means of often-dubious token gross sales which have amounted to little greater than shiny whitepapers and empty guarantees. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) adopted go well with, constructing a $17 billion complete market cap throughout their 2022 heyday that has since declined to round $2 billion, according to CoinGecko.

Each ICOs and NFTs additionally obtained the identical type of superstar endorsements which can be on the coronary heart of the latest memecoin lawsuit. NFTs’ deal with artwork and tradition is especially analogous to the type of advertising and marketing that’s seen within the memecoin area.

Satirically, simply as memecoin enthusiasm wanes, Coinbase has revived the ICO mannequin with a brand new token gross sales platform, aiming to impose stricter requirements like six-month lockups for issuers and algorithms favoring long-term holders this time round. But early indicators are underwhelming: the inaugural Monad token sale may not achieve its goal of $187 million in token gross sales.

We had been extraordinarily intentional whereas at CoinList to make sure gross sales all the time offered out.

Rookie mistake for Coinbase’s first sale. https://t.co/MsGcRhl8rM

— Mike Zajko (@MikeZajko) November 18, 2025

It’s more and more evident that Bitcoin and stablecoins characterize the enduring pillars of the crypto ecosystem, providing real decentralization in Bitcoin’s case and one thing extra akin to raised tech (or at the very least much less regulated tech) for conventional finance within the case of stablecoins.

Nonetheless, this duo additionally underscores a widening chasm: whereas Bitcoin embodies peer-to-peer autonomy and is developing a decentralized monetary system, stablecoins usually function instruments for regulatory sidestepping by fintech startups, enabling “decentralization theater” that bolsters the U.S. greenback’s centralized hegemony by means of regulatory and lawmaker-approved variations of conventional finance somewhat than true innovation.