Andy Warhol once said, “In the future, everybody will be famous for a few months, and in that time they will be accused of insider trading when their memecoin flops.” Or something like that. Hawk Tuah girl, real name Hailey Welch, is embroiled in crypto controversy after launching a meme currency, $HAWK, on December 4 via the Solana blockchain, per the Independent. After launch, the coin rode Ms. Tuah’s public profile to sky-high heights, surging to 900 percent of its original value and reaching a market cap of $490 million, per Crypto Times. Within hours, it crashed 91 percent. The rise and fall of a southern princess’s memecoin was attributed to insider wallets and snipers who controlled 80 to 90 percent of the coin at launch. These groups buy a bunch of a coin, wait for it to reach peak publicity (perhaps after being endorsed by a viral personality), then sell immediately.
Tuah denied that any insiders were given early access to her coin. “Team hasn’t sold one token and not 1 KOL was given 1 free token,” she posted on X (acknowledging that she was copying and pasting the statement). “We tried to stop snipers as best we could through high fee’s in the start of launch on @MeteoraAG.” Many online disputed this statement with one screengrab shared on X by @beaniemaxie showing insiders selling. Another user, “high lev pro trader” @imperooterxbt, claimed to report Tuah to the SEC. Maybe, in the future, Team Tuah should stick to talking.
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