The woman behind the viral meme was forced to come forward and say she was working with a lawyer over the meme coin.
Hayley Welch went viral after she used the word “taka tua” to describe a sexual act during an On the Street style interview outside a nightclub.
Since then, Welch has done everything he can to take advantage of that fame — including launching a career on social media, starting a podcast, appearing at festivals, and more.
Her latest bid was a type of meme coin.
Hawkcoin, which trades under $HAWK, reached a peak market capitalization of $490 million shortly after its launch on December 4, but dropped significantly to $26.4 million.
Shortly after, Welch faced backlash and scrutiny against cryptocurrencies.
The 22-year-old said she is working with a lawyer to resolve the matter.
“I take this situation very seriously and would like to appeal to our fans, affected investors and the broader community,” Welch said.
“I will fully cooperate and support the legal teams representing the affected individuals and am committed to uncovering the truth, holding responsible parties accountable, and resolving this matter.” Welch he added. “If you have experienced a loss in this connection, please contact Berwick Law Firm.”
Earlier this month, Berwick Law posted a post looking for people affected by meme coins.
Some suggested that the cryptocurrency was used in a pump-and-dump fashion, artificially inflating its value before quickly selling it for a profit.
Coin Telegraph, a news website covering the crypto market, reported data from the Bubble Map and Dex Cleaner platforms that the combination of insider wallets and “snipers” accounted for 80% of the $HAWK supply at launch. reported controlling ~90%.
Snipers are organizations that buy up a large supply of tokens at launch before selling them at a profit.
One buyer's wallet targeted Hawk seconds after its launch, purchasing 17.5 percent of the memecoin's supply for the equivalent of $993,000.
Coin Telegraph reported that they sold 135.8 million tokens and earned a profit of $1.3 million.
Welch's latest statement comes after he denied any wrongdoing on social media when backlash against the coin first began to emerge.
“The team has not yet sold a single token and not a single KOL has been given a single free token,” she wrote in a post to X. “We paid high prices at the beginning of the launch in Meteora to try to deter snipers as much as possible.”
She previously told Fortune that her meme coin (so-named because it's based on pop culture) “isn't just a cash grab.”
