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Haliey Welch aka Hawk Tuah Girl
Haliey Welch aka Hawk Tuah Girl
@hay_welch via Instagram
Culture > Entertainment

Where TF Has Hawk Tuah Girl Been? She Just Resurfaced After Going MIA

Makalah Wright

Ever since July 2024, no one’s been able to escape Hawk Tuah Girl, aka Haliey Welch. Since then, Welch has seen mega success with her Talk Tuah podcast and her own merch line. She even invented a new word. (Y’all remember “shirtussy”?) The amount of attention Welch has gotten from one single moment on the internet has been out of this world, and it’s wild to think that just about anything can make you go viral nowadays. Though Welch and her “hawk tuah” schtick have been taking the internet by storm these last few months, she’s now making headlines again for totally different reason. 

ICYMI, Welch had been MIA from the public eye for weeks. Fans noticed that she hasn’t released any new episodes of her Talk Tuah podcast or posted on her Instagram since Dec. 3. Then, on Dec. 20, she resurfaced following a less-than-ideal situation with her “Hawk Tuah”-branded memecoin, $HAWK. So, what exactly happened to her? Here’s everything we know. 

On Dec. 4, Welch announced the launch of her own memecoin, which are cryptocurrencies inspired by internet memes or cultural trends. After the launch of the cryptocurrency, things started to go south for Welch. Her memecoin managed to make hundreds of millions of dollars from people who wanted to invest in the crypto coin.  $HAWK hit a market cap of $490 million and as time progressed, it reportedly lost over 90% of its value. Many people started to wonder where the money actually went, with claims of the majority of the tokens being withheld. Investors reportedly lost about $151,000.

Because of this, a lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in New York on Dec. 19 against the $HAWK creators. Filed by investors, it accuses overHere Ltd.; its founder, Clinton So; and social media influencer, Alex Larson Schultz; as well as the Tuah The Moon Foundation of “unlawfully promoting and selling cryptocurrency that was allegedly never properly registered,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. Welch, however, is not named as a defendant in the suit. Her Campus reached out to Welch’s team for comment about the lawsuit, but didn’t hear back by the time of publication. 

On Dec. 16, overHere Ltd. released a multi-part statement on X/ Twitter about the situation. “We saw $HAWK as the perfect use case for our startup’s idea: to bring airdrops to web2. Hailey Welch—a literal meme—launching a meme coin felt like synchronicity,” the company wrote. “Our goal was simple: bring Web2 fans into Web3 seamlessly. A way to bring Web2 into crypto through culture, not just speculation. First of its kind. That’s it. For free. We believed in that vision so much that pushed harder and harder, perhaps through rose-tinted glasses and naivety about others’ intentions, even as the project began to unravel.”

Though Welch wasn’t named as a defendant, she broke her silence about all of this in a tweet posted to X on Dec. 20. “I take this situation extremely seriously and want to address my fans, the investors who have been affected, and the broader community,” she wrote. “I am fully cooperating with and am committed to assisting the legal team representing the individuals impacted, as well as to help uncover the truth, hold the responsible parties accountable, and resolve this matter. If you have experienced losses related to this, please contact Burwick Law using the link below: https://burwick.law/newclient. @BurwickLaw.”

Thoough many people aren’t too happy with Welch right now, investor Mark Cuban defended her through the aftermath. “It wasn’t something she fully understood,” he said during a podcast with The Washington Post‘s Jules Terpak. “But she trusted the people around her.”

IDK about you, but this definitely wasn’t on my 2024 bingo card. 

Makalah Wright is a national writer for Her Campus and has contributed largely to the wellness section of the website. So far, she has written articles based on mental health, relationships, and other wellness-related topics. She has also written personal essays about real-life experiences and she encourages readers to take inspiration or learn from it. She previously served as the fall 2024 entertainment and culture intern for Her Campus. She is a senior at the University of West Georgia, studying in public relations with a minor in music. After her undergrad, she plans to get a masters in public relations and work within the media industry. She also hopes to create her own foundation that will help with funding for the performing arts in schools. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with loved ones, shopping, traveling to new places, and drinking iced coffee. She also enjoys playing the clarinet and listening to all types of music, specifically jazz.