Hailey Welch to cooperate with legal team after rug-pulling the HAWK token

Hailey Welch has sent out a message on X weeks after going silent. Welch, of the famous Talk Tuah podcast, disappeared from social media after rug-pulling the HAWK token on live stream. 

Hailey Welch has responded to warnings about a class action lawsuit for rug-pulling the HAWK token. In the past 24 hours, court filings surfaced that represented claims on behalf of buyers of the HAWK meme token. 

After almost a day of waiting, Welch responded with a message that she was fully committed to cooperating with legal representatives and compensating the buyers of her meme token. 

I take this situation extremely seriously and want to address my fans, the investors who have been affected, and the broader community. I am fully cooperating with and am committed to assisting the legal team representing the individuals impacted, as well as to help uncover the…

— Haliey Welch (@HalieyWelchX) December 20, 2024

Welch herself does not admit to a direct fault and has asked victims to contact Burwick Law, the first firm that advertised its willingness to represent HAWK token buyers. Burwick Law is generally open to pursuing meme tokens and NFT fraud, taking special interest in the HAWK token case. Burwick Law has denied representing Welch, instead pointing out its goal of achieving compensation and the best outcome for all involved parties.

The token itself was launched by the Tuah The Moon Foundation, registered in the Cayman Islands. The HAWK token was not a simple launch and involved multiple parties that could have exerted control over the token.

The HAWK token and the influence of Welch had another unexpected effect. Polymarket carried a small betting pair on Welch returning to X and tweeting before December 20. Just in time, Welch delivered, immediately resolving the betting market. 

One account bought 18,936 ‘yes’ tokens just minutes before Welch tweeted, though at that time the price rose to $0.927. Thus, the biggest buyer still had limited success. For other holders, the market spiked from $0.41 to $1 for the ‘yes’ token. The timing of the big purchase for ‘yes’ tokens led to more speculations of insider activity.

HAWK token is still held by a cabal of wallets

Welch, who became famous for a short Internet clip, released the HAWK meme asset while controlling most of the supply. The community was warned by BubbleMaps and other analysts that HAWK worked as a celebrity coin and was at risk for insider control. 

While Welch kept most of her content light and to the point, her Internet influence was immense. This led to outsized investments into the HAWK token. In some cases, meme tokens linked to celebrities have survived longer without a rug pull. In this case, it is yet unclear who initiated the sell-off, which ended up draining all of the token’s liquidity. 

HAWK trades at an extremely low rate, sinking to $0.00092. The token has only $893K in liquidity locked, an extremely low tier for a widely known asset. Before the rug pull, HAWK found its way into 12,724 wallets. The top wallet still carries more than 28% of the supply. 

Just before the launch, 96% of the supply was linked to a cluster of connected wallets, which went on to sell to the community. The initial sale drained the liquidity too fast, leaving the token to crash.  

Despite the token’s high profile, no community has claimed it as its own. This is mostly due to the rapid rug pull, which still left a cabal of large-scale wallets controlling the supply. 

Meme tokens, however, are never really defunct. Soon after the news of Welch offering redress, HAWK started climbing, rising to $0.00099. The token may yet revive given the extra publicity. 

Within minutes, traders injected around $100K in liquidity, which started to move the price in the green after two weeks of stagnation. Within minutes, buy orders in the thousands of dollars started flowing into the market, aiming to make use of its rock-bottom prices.

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