Hailey Welsh, Known as 'Hawk Tuah' Girl, Describes Memecoin Collapse as 'Traumatizing' Experience
More than a year following the incident, Welsh has cautioned people against entering the cryptocurrency space, admitting she remains completely unfamiliar with how the sector operates.
During an interview on Friday with Andrew Callaghan from the Channel 5 YouTube channel, Welsh stated, "I got talked into doing something that I didn't know anything about, really, but you've got to be really careful what you put your name on."
According to Welsh, she provided complete cooperation during a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation in 2025, which ultimately exonerated her of any misconduct, and stated that she neither received any funds from the memecoin's launch nor possessed the technical knowledge necessary to create the coin.
Welsh went on to explain that the aggregate losses sustained by "real people" during the failed memecoin launch were relatively minimal, with her legal representative calculating that retail investors lost approximately $200,000 in total dollar value.
Nonetheless, Welsh revealed she was subjected to death threats and attempted to maintain a low profile for several months following the event, which significantly impacted her mental well-being. She stated:
"I was starting to get death threats and everything else. People telling me I owe them all this money, and I'm like, 'I didn't do this.' I'm sitting here, and I'm the one getting hit for this. It's rough. It's one of those things where if you come out of the house, you put your head down."
That said, Welsh's statements did not persuade everyone. Onchain sleuth ZachXBT commented, "No one should feel bad for the 'trauma.'"
He continued, "She starts posting about meme coins. The entirety of [crypto Twitter] tells her 'do not launch a token.' She launches a memecoin anyway, and after, she blames partners and disappears off social media, with followers losing funds."
HAWK memecoin experiences rapid crash following its launch
When the HAWK memecoin went live in December 2024, it experienced a dramatic surge to a market capitalization exceeding $490 million within just a few hours of its debut.
The token subsequently plummeted by more than 91% on the next day, dropping to a market cap of approximately $41 million, with many observers labeling it as a rug pull.
A lawsuit brought by investors was filed in December 2024 against the team and various entities responsible for creating and overseeing the memecoin launch, though Welsh was not named as a defendant, with allegations that these entities engaged in the sale of unregistered securities.