Internet star Haliey Welch, also referred to as the “Hawk Tuah Girl,” mentioned Friday she is “absolutely cooperating” with attorneys who’re representing individuals impacted by the current crash of crypto meme coin $HAWK.
Welch helped launch the cryptocurrency, named after her viral catchphrase, earlier this month. Within hours after the digital coin was made out there, its worth plummeted and the 22-year-old influencer faced accusations that it was a rip-off. At the time, Welch’s group blamed “snipers” — bots programmed to purchase tokens instantly upon launch and promote when costs spike — for inflicting the market cap fluctuation.
Investors of the $HAWK coin filed a lawsuit on Thursday in opposition to the coin’s creators, accusing the corporate overHere Ltd., its founder, Clinton So, Tuah The Moon Foundation and social media influencer Alex Larson Schultz of unlawfully selling and promoting cryptocurrency that they are saying was by no means correctly registered with the SEC.
The swimsuit, a duplicate of which was reviewed by NBC News, was filed within the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. It doesn’t title Welch as a defendant.
In a put up on X on Friday, Welch responded to the lawsuit, urging those that “skilled losses associated to this” to contact the legislation agency Burwick PLLC.
“I take this example extraordinarily severely and need to deal with my followers, the buyers who’ve been affected, and the broader neighborhood,” she wrote. “I’m absolutely cooperating with and am dedicated to aiding the authorized group representing the people impacted, in addition to to assist uncover the reality, maintain the accountable events accountable, and resolve this matter.”
A spokesperson for Welch didn’t instantly reply to a request for extra touch upon Friday.
Burwick PLLC, which teamed up with legislation agency Wolf Popper LLC, mentioned that $HAWK’s token market capitalization “surged” to $491 million after launching on Dec. 4, however its “meteoric rise was short-lived, because the $HAWK token’s worth plummeted by over 90% inside hours, dropping under $100 million.”
“This excessive volatility left many buyers, notably first-time cryptocurrency buyers drawn in by Haliey Welch’s involvement, dealing with vital monetary losses,” the 2 corporations wrote in a news release Friday.
Wolf Popper LLP and Burwick Law mentioned they’re “looking for to recuperate on behalf of the plaintiffs’ and the category’s purchases of $HAWK tokens.”
Welch jumped into the crypto craze after months of rising her model. Since June, when her interview went viral, she has cashed in on her success with Hawk Tuah-themed merch, her podcast “Talk Tuah” and the launch of her AI relationship assistant app Pookie Tools.
In the times main as much as the $HAWK’s launch, she promoted it in a number of posts on X. In an interview with Fortune, she mentioned she used to consider crypto as “only a rip-off” and an “simple approach so that you can lose cash.” However, she mentioned she started seeing it as a “good strategy to work together with followers” after attending a number of cryptocurrency conferences.
In a Dec. 4 put up on X following the preliminary controversy, Welch mentioned that she and the individuals behind the coin haven’t bought any of their holdings.
Memecoins are cryptocurrencies equivalent to DOGE (named after the enduring doge meme) and MOODENG (named after the viral child pygmy hippo), that had been impressed by web memes. Their efficiency available in the market will be unstable, relying largely on the hype generated by social media traits. But some memecoins have also courted controversy, and celebrities who’ve touted crypto cash with out transparency about their monetary incentives have also faced scrutiny and legal action.
In a joint assertion on X on Friday, Wolf Popper LLP and Burwick Law wrote, “Sadly, that is one in all many memecoin instances the place institutional greed has exploited celebrities and their affect to hurt on a regular basis individuals.”
