Haliey Welch, who catapulted to internet fame after a street interview in which she detailed an oral sex technique, has apologized for her role in the Hawk Tuah meme coin scandal. She added that her silence since the incident was part of a “much-needed” mental health break.
This comes after Welch promoted a Solana meme coin called Hawk Tuah (HAWK), in reference to her viral interview, that quickly imploded after its launch. Within 15 minutes, the token was created, soared to a $490 million market capitalization, before it crashed 93% in value—prompting a slew of rug pull allegations.
On-chain analysts at Bubblemaps claimed that 285 wallets controlled 96% of the HAWK supply, with most of these wallets dumping their tokens for profit. Weeks later, Burwick Law filed a U.S. federal lawsuit on behalf of investors against the creators of the meme coin—and Welch cooperated with the firm.
“It was one of those things that just happened, and I feel sorry for everybody that just lost money,” Welch told Vanity Fair in a recent interview. “You got to be really careful what you tie your name to, and you definitely need to know what you’re getting yourself into when you agree to do it. That’s something I definitely should have done beforehand.”
She also admitted that she doesn’t “really understand” how the crypto world works and that it hurts to see her fans commenting that they lost money on the project.
“All my comments, if you read those, people are like, ‘Oh, well, I lost a lot of money in this. Now my kids have to go without stuff.’ I don’t know. It makes me feel, like, really sorry for it,” Welch explained.
The Hawk Tuah token was launched in collaboration with Doc Hollywood (who was named as Alex Larson Schultz in the lawsuit), OverHere Limited, Clinton So, and the Tuah the Moon Foundation.
On the day of the token launch, Welch, Schultz, and an unnamed OverHere representative took to an X Spaces to calm down angry investors. But it didn’t work. Since then, OverHere appeared to shift blame onto Schultz. Welch hasn’t pointed to a specific party, but has excluded herself from the equation by saying she didn’t have anything to do with technicalities.
Welch brought an abrupt end to the X Spaces by saying “Anyhoo, I’m gonna go to bed.” This was the start of more than two weeks of silence, prompting the meme that she had fallen into a very deep sleep.
“I hate to say this, but it was a much-needed mental health—just…what do you call it? A mental health break, I guess, is what you can call it,” she told Vanity Fair. “I would see my friends. I would go out and eat. That’s really about it. I don’t ever get out and do much when I’m home. I like being by myself.”
i can’t stop laughing at the hawk tuah space abruptly ending with “ANYWHO I’M GONNA GO TO BED!” 🤣 pic.twitter.com/wmicS4MztB
— Tiffany Fong (@TiffanyFong_) December 5, 2024
The internet influencer and host of the Talk Tuah podcast said that the scandal badly affected her mental health—but not as much as when she first blew up on the internet following the street interview.
“Everything changed after that interview. I’ve always been one to struggle with mental health, and I’m still struggling with it a little bit,” she said. “Your whole life’s basically online, and then people can say anything they want to you. And then you got to sit there with the thought: Oh, a lot of people just lost money because of something you did, like, [something] you led them to.”
Welch eventually broke her silence to support the aforementioned lawsuit. Later, a podcast episode with YouTube FaZe Banks and a number of crypto influencers was leaked prompting allegations of market manipulation and led to more silence.
However, in April, the Talk Tuah podcast returned with four episodes as Welch looks to return to normality. This time around, she says, there will be higher levels of scrutiny for incoming partners.
“It’s not really that it’s hard to trust people,” Welch told Vanity Fair. “It really makes you sit there and question them more than you probably would have before. Just because you don’t want to get in another pickle.”
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
