"Hawk Tuah" girl Hailey Welch said Friday she is "fully cooperating" with lawyers representing people who lost money investing in her crypto token, HAWK, which flopped in early December amid allegations of malfeasance.
"I take this situation extremely seriously," she said in a post on X. The viral TikTok star encouraged victims of HAWK coin to reach out to the law firm suing HAWK's creators as she works to "uncover the truth" about the token.
HAWK token — a memecoin on the Solana blockchain — imploded early this month at nearly the moment of its creation. On-chain observers have claimed insiders pocketed massive sums of money at the expense of people who purchased the token, and lost big.
Its collapse sparked a lawsuit alleging securities violations against the creators of Hawk Tuah coin. Filed by Burwick Law on behalf of people who lost money on HAWK, it accused the creators of leveraging Welch's internet fame to unlawfully peddle an unregistered investment.
In a statement, Burwick Law told CoinDesk:
"Integrity and justice are two of our core principles. Yesterday, Burwick Law and Wolf Popper began the process of pursuing the individuals and organizations responsible for the harm caused to investors and fans by the $HAWK token. Sadly, this is one of many memecoin cases where institutional greed has exploited celebrities and their influence to harm everyday people."
The controversy derailed Welch's burgeoning arc as a content creator who was parlaying her momentary internet fame into low-tier celebrity status. She had capitalized on her moment by signing representation, sponsorship and image licensing fees of her catchphrase and nickname, Hawk Tuah.
One of those deals was for Hawk Tuah coin. Welch received a fixed fee in return for lending her likeness to the project, according to a press agency that emailed CoinDesk without first being contacted. The agency's email stated that "there was no guarantee she would make any additional money from the memecoin after."