tl;dr
Hailey Welch, known as the "Hawk Tuah" girl, launched the HAWK meme coin, which rapidly surged to a $490 million market cap before plummeting over 93% in value. Allegations of a rug pull emerged as interconnected wallets sold off large amounts of the token, pocketing over $3 million. Bubblemaps reve...
Allegations of rug pulling surround the launch of the HAWK meme coin, as interconnected wallets sold off tokens, leading to a 93% value collapse.
The HAWK team denies any wrongdoing, attributing token sell-offs to standard tokenomics, while critics point to insiders dumping an extraordinary amount of supply.
Community skepticism and allegations of deception emerge on Crypto Twitter, with little consensus on Hailey Welch's involvement in the token's collapse.
Hailey Welch, known as the "Hawk Tuah" girl, launched the HAWK meme coin, which rapidly surged to a $490 million market cap before plummeting over 93% in value. Allegations of a rug pull emerged as interconnected wallets sold off large amounts of the token, pocketing over $3 million.
Bubblemaps revealed that 285 wallets acquired 96% of HAWK's supply during presales and giftings, with the majority quickly dumping their tokens for profit. Welch's team denied any token sales and claimed the sell-offs were part of HAWK's tokenomics roadmap, but Twitter users and Bubblemaps suggested project insiders were involved in the massive sell-offs.
The project's explanation was criticized as deceptive, and Crypto Twitter largely doubted Welch's innocence in the matter.
On Wednesday evening, Hailey Welch, Ms. Tuah herself, launched the HAWK token to much fanfare. Within less than 15 minutes, the token climbed to a market capitalization of $490 million before immediately collapsing over 93% in value.
Apparently, a web of interconnected wallets sold off vast sums of the token as soon as the public began buying it—and pocketed over $3 million thanks to the maneuver.
Bubblemaps, the on-chain data visualization company, determined on Thursday that 285 wallets collectively acquired some 96% of HAWK’s supply during token presales and giftings. Within the first minutes of HAWK’s debut, the majority of those wallets dumped their tokens to make a quick profit.
Outrage immediately swirled on Crypto Twitter over what appeared to be a classic meme coin rug pull. Welch’s team quickly pushed back against the allegations, claiming the observed sell-offs were standard elements of HAWK’s tokenomics roadmap.
Twitter users immediately pointed to the rampant selling off of vast sums of HAWK by what appeared to be project insiders.
Bubblemaps told Decrypt that their analysis concluded that while the HAWK team itself has not yet sold off any tokens, KOLs and “strategic advisors” connected to the project have dumped an extraordinary amount of its supply—leading to the collapse of its value immediately following launch. Decrypt reached out to Welch’s team regarding those conclusions but did not immediately receive a response.
While little consensus has yet been reached on Welch’s complicity in the saga, Crypto Twitter appears to have firmly made up its mind. The project’s explanation of irregularities during HAWK’s launch was swiftly tagged with a Community Note that lambasted the post as intentionally deceptive.