‘Hawk Tuah’ girl says SEC closed its investigation into her crypto scam

Haliey Welch, better known online as the “Hawk Tuah” girl, says the SEC is done investigating her role in the failed $HAWK token project, and she’s not facing any charges.

The investigation began after her meme coin blew up in price and then dropped 91% in less than three hours, leaving thousands of people wrecked. Haliey told TMZ, “For the past few months, I’ve been cooperating with all the authorities and attorneys, and finally, that work is complete.”

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had launched the probe after the sudden crash of the token, which had surged to a $490 million market cap before collapsing to $60 million.

The drop triggered complaints from investors and caused chaos across social media. Most of the people who lost money had never touched crypto before and had jumped in just because Haliey was attached to the project.

Some people even filed a lawsuit, but it was aimed at the creators of the coin—not Haliey. The lawsuit accused the devs of launching without proper approval.

Welch avoids charges while others face legal fallout

Haliey’s lawyer, James Sallah, confirmed that the SEC is done. “The SEC closed the investigation without making any findings against, or seeking any monetary sanctions from, Haliey,” he told TMZ. “Because they did not bring any action against her, there are no restrictions on what she can do in regards to crypto or securities in the future.”

When TMZ reached out to the SEC to confirm, the agency refused to comment on the Hawk Tuah case. Even though Haliey won’t be charged, the token itself didn’t survive the backlash.

She’s done with it and says she’s split from the LLC behind the coin. She won’t promote it anymore or support it going forward. People close to her told TMZ she’s “totally done” with the meme coin world.

While Haliey walked away without charges, crypto investigator Stephen Findeisen, also known as Coffeezilla, didn’t let it slide. In a video that hit 6 million views by February 19, Coffeezilla accused Haliey and her team of pulling off a pump-and-dump scam.

“Unfortunately, with situations like this, they’re not targeting crypto bros; they’re mostly targeting actual fans who have never been involved in the crypto space before,” he said. The video broke down how insiders usually inflate prices before dumping their bags, leaving retail investors with worthless tokens.

Haliey denied the claims. Her legal team said she hadn’t sold any of her tokens and couldn’t cash out unless she sold them. They said if she ever did, she’d only be entitled to 3.5% after paying her non-crypto team. On December 4, Haliey posted on X, saying her team hadn’t sold any tokens and that no key opinion leaders had been given free tokens either. She blamed the token crash on outside traders manipulating the market.

Blockchain data tells a different story about HAWK dump

Despite her public denial, blockchain analysts pushed back. Token movement on-chain suggested that some people on the team were already dumping their tokens since launch.

One community note on Haliey’s X post straight up said that team wallets had been selling tokens from day one, even the ones that were received for free. That wasn’t the only red flag. Another community note on an OverHere post warned that $HAWK was risky as hell and advised people to do research before jumping in.

The backlash online was loud and relentless. People posted that they lost their savings. Haliey disappeared from social media for a while. When she finally posted again, it was a weak “copy-paste” message that made people even angrier. It didn’t stop the SEC complaints from piling up.

The $HAWK token had one of the fastest crashes in meme coin history. What looked like a viral success turned into a financial mess in under three hours. Despite all the signs, Haliey says she’s out and moving on.

She’s not going back to crypto. What she is doing, though, is launching a Hawk Tuah documentary and working on a new podcast called “Talk Tuah.” So while she’s leaving crypto behind, she’s still cashing in on the brand.

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