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Haliey Welch, also known as the 'Hawk Tuah' girl, recently opened up about her cryptocurrency scandal, claiming that she "did not make a dime for it." According to Celebrity Net Worth, Welch launched a meme coin, $HAWK, in December 2024.
As per People, in June 2024, Haliey Welch rose to fame after appearing in a street interview conducted by Tim & Dee TV. When the interviewer asked her what “move in bed makes a man go crazy,” she replied, "You gotta give 'em that 'hawk tuah' and spit on that thang."
Welch's interview went viral, and she quickly became popular in the realm of memes, known as the Hawk Tuah girl. She soon secured numerous product branding contracts, and appeared on multiple podcasts.
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By December, Welch’s fame took an unexpected turn when she partnered with OverHere, a crypto company, to launch $HAWK. The token briefly surged to a $500 million valuation before plummeting over 90% within hours, leaving investors furious and sparking accusations of a "pump and dump" scam.
Hawk Tuah girl's cryptocurrency scandal explored
In her first detailed comments since the crash, Haliey Welch, the Hawk Tuah girl, admitted on her Talk Tuah podcast on May 20, 2025, that she was completely clueless about cryptocurrency when she agreed to promote $HAWK.
As per the New York Post, Welch confessed:
"I couldn’t tell you how crypto worked the day that coin launched. I had no idea. So that screwed me."
Welch said that she was approached by a crypto firm that oversaw every aspect of the launch. But while the initiative was connected to her face and the Hawk Tuah brand, Welch said that she never got more than a “marketing fee” for her part, a fee she was forced to pay for crisis PR and legal help.
"Anything that was raised from that coin, I did not make a dime for it, but at this point, everything I’ve paid for PR crisis, a new lawyer, stuff like that–every bit of it went to that. So I’ve really come out with nothing. All that trouble for nothing," she said.
The crash of $HAWK was also followed by no less shocking consequences than her short-lived rise. Welch shared that FBI agents had arrived at her grandmother’s house in Tennessee without warning, confiscated her phone, and began investigating her.
“She called me, having a heart attack, and said, ‘The FBI is here after you. What have you done?’" she said.
After a contentious interrogation in Nashville, she was exonerated. However, the SEC requested her phone for the same procedure. Although the agencies did not charge her with any offense, Welch was terrified by the experience.
“It was definitely scary, but at the end of the day … I was cleared and wasn’t named in the lawsuit. Legally, I wasn’t in any trouble,” Welch said.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Welch expressed her regret for misleading her fans into something she did not have full knowledge of. She also clarified that the amount of lost money, which was initially claimed to be $1.2 million, was closer to $180,000.
As per Celebrity Net Worth, the Hawk Tuah girl's net worth as of May 2025 is $500,000.
