'Hawk Tuah' girl Hailey Welsh says memecoin implosion 'traumatized' her

Welsh warned others to stay away from crypto and said that she still does not understand anything about the sector more than a year later.

Hailey Welch, the online social media influencer, popularly known as the “Hawk Tuah girl,” said that the implosion of the “HAWK” memecoin, which she promoted in 2024, and the ensuing social backlash “traumatized” her.

“I got talked into doing something that I didn't know anything about, really, but you've got to be really careful what you put your name on,” Welsh told Andrew Callaghan of the Channel 5 YouTube channel on Friday.

Welsh said she fully cooperated with a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) probe in 2025, which cleared her of any wrongdoing, and that she did not possess any of the funds from the memecoin launch, nor did she have the technical expertise to launch the coin.

Read more