Hailey Welch, a.k.a the Hawk Tuah Girl, launched her highly-anticipated memecoin on Solana Wednesday. While $HAWK saw an initial surge of a whopping $500 million, it tanked to $60 million in just 20 minutes. As the shocking crash lost some of the buyers their “whole life savings,” netizens accused the 21-year-old of “rug pull” and “pump-and-dump” crypto scam.
Hawk Tuah Girl's meme coin $HAWK crashes in minutes, buyers lose all their money
Just minutes into the launch, $HAWK soared to $500 million, drawing confidence among buyers. However, it was short-lived, as the crypto plunged to $60 million within 20 minutes. Buyers of the meme coin, who were primarily Welch's fans, suffered severe monetary losses. The sudden crash raised several eyebrows, with many accusing the internet personality of scamming them with rug pull, which is a type of common exit scam usually seen in the cryptocurrency market.
What is rug pull?
“A rug pull is a type of exit scam that involves a team raising money from investors and the public by selling a token only to quietly shut down the project or suddenly disappear, stealing the raised funds and leaving “investors” (i.e., their victims) with worthless tokens,” according to CoinDesk.
$HAWK buyers demand Hailey Welch face jail time
Fans quickly flocked to social media to highlight their losses, with one blaming Welch for their loss of “life savings.” “My $35,000 that I purchased of $Hawk is now $2,000 after 10 minutes of buying. I am a huge fan of Hawk Tuah but you took my life savings. I purchased your coin $Hawk that you were so excited about with my life savings and children’s college education fund as well,” an X user wrote.
{{/usCountry}}Fans quickly flocked to social media to highlight their losses, with one blaming Welch for their loss of “life savings.” “My $35,000 that I purchased of $Hawk is now $2,000 after 10 minutes of buying. I am a huge fan of Hawk Tuah but you took my life savings. I purchased your coin $Hawk that you were so excited about with my life savings and children’s college education fund as well,” an X user wrote.
{{/usCountry}}“You didn’t mention that you were going to buy 97% of the supply and sell it almost immediately to make a large profit. If I would have known that information I would have not purchased your coin. Please help me or who can I contact for refund? If not I will be forced to use leagal action,” they added.
Crypto enthusiast Bento Boi warned netizens to stay away from cryptocurrencies, especially celebrity coins. Sharing his assessment of the dramatic crash, the internet personality wrote, “The $HAWK TUA Memecoin Dev Made Over $2 Million in 10 minutes?! 96% of the supply is held in one cluster Main Takeaway: Stay Away From Celebrity Coins Here's the situation.”