The internet sensation, also known as Haliey Welch, has addressed her cryptocurrency controversy in a ‘leaked’ podcast episode and declared how bad she feels for those who invested
Internet sensation Hawk Tuah girl, also known as Haliey Welch, has finally broken her silence on her cryptocurrency scandal and said she feels “really bad” people have been affected by it.
The 22-year-old rocketed to internet stardom after a street interview clip with TikTokers Tim and Dee TV of her telling a casual joke went viral in June last year.
When asked about the one move in bed that makes men go crazy, she said: “Oh, you gotta give him that ‘ huak tuah’ and spit on that thang.”
Haliey became an instant sensation and received so much publicity she quit her job and started up a podcast, Talk Tuah with Haliey Welch.
But six months later after she became the internet’s darling, she was embroiled in controversy after she branched out into cryptocurrency – fronting a meme coin named $HAWK token.
Initially it rocketed to a value of $490 million (£393 million) before it plummeted by more than 90% – collectively losing millions for those who had invested in the heavily promoted token.
Lawsuits were launched against the coin’s creators and accusations were made of unlawfully promoting and selling cryptocurrency.
While Welch only fronted the $HAWK token and has not been named as a defendant in the lawsuit, she has faced significant backlash online.
Since then, the Nashville native has stayed pretty silent on the subject, even cutting out of an X Spaces conversation as she was being grilled over the alleged scam by declaring she was ‘going to bed’.
However, she has recently returned to her podcast Talk Tuah where she spoke Banks, the founder of esports and entertainment brand, FaZe Clan where she got teary about the incident.
In the leaked episode, Welch said the idea had been brought to her as a ‘long-term coin’ that would ‘change the way everybody thinks about crypto’.
She said: “And I feel really bad for all the people that got affected by it. And it just didn’t go the way I planned.”
She also revealed her ‘biggest mistake’ was trusting the guy who was a ‘friend of a friend’ in taking on the crypto deal.
She added: “I probably should have looked into him a little bit more.”
However, since the latest episode has been ‘leaked’, Banks has hit out and slammed Welch’s team.
He explained there were heavy stipulations for appearing on the podcast and said: “These were nonstarters and we were told this episode would only ever see the light of day if we explicitly green lit it.”
He added: “Poor girl, it’s a wonder how she found herself in this position in the first place.
Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that are based on viral memes and pop culture references.
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