- Haliey Welch’s burgeoning podcast career was abruptly halted after a failed memecoin launch.
- In her first episode back, Welch and her lawyer attempt to explain what happened to an invited panel of memecoin experts.
- The leak of the episode itself is generating its own controversy.
Haliey Welch, the viral star better known as “Hawk Tuah girl,” has returned to the podcast couch in an attempt to explain what happened with the relatively disastrous launch of her branded memecoin.
In the episode of “Talk Tuah,” leaked to X on Friday, Welch and her lawyer attempted to explain what happened behind-the-scenes.
At the time of its launch, critics called the $HAWK token a pump-and-dump — it spiked to $500 million total value shortly after debuting, before dropping to $50 million just 30 minutes after launch, leaving many public investors in the lurch.
The token’s chart since launch paints a stark picture.
That was the result of poorly structured and managed back-end deals, according to details explained on the podcast by Christian Barker, Welch’s lawyer.
Barker says Welch was to receive $125,000 up front and $200,000 for the use of her image and brand in addition to 5% of its total supply, subject to a one-year lockup.
“A lot of this information we found out since the launch, ‘we’ as in Haliey’s internal, non-crypto team,” said Barker.
He explained that 17% of the token’s total supply was pre-sold.
That kind of market supply overhang can be the death knell of a memecoin; investors with pre-public tokens will often, and seemingly did, dump on “retail” investors for high returns across little risk.
Barker said Welch and her team were told those presale tokens would be subject to a one-month lock on sales, but that “it’s pretty obvious on-chain that didn’t happen.”
In addition, Barker revealed 80% of the token’s supply is currently controlled by its developer, offering little hope to any remaining holders of $HAWK for a return to its high-flying valuations without assurances in the form of token locks from that developer.
In the wake of the episode’s leak, podcast guest FaZe Banks – brought on as a memecoin expert by Welch — claimed on X that there were stipulations to his appearance on the show.
He said those stipulations had not been met and that the episode’s leak itself was an attempt to pump the price of HAWK.
“We noticed a random spike in volume on [$HAWK] [February 2] along with random messages asking us if we did the podcast,” Banks writes.
“Very clearly, her team was not as solid as they claimed to be,” alleging further mishandling of the token.
“They completely blew it and we called the episode off right then and there,” he said.
“Now today, the episode ‘randomly’ gets leaked. The price of $HAWK is pumping and they completely fucking fumbled the bag, yet again. What a fucking mess. Poor girl, it’s a wonder how she found herself in this position in the first place.”
Welch and her lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Speaking earlier in the episode, Welch shared a piece of advice she received from one of her podcast’s earliest guests, the rapper Wiz Khalifa:
“Don’t ever put your name on something you don’t understand.”