Hawk Tuah Girl Cryptocurrency: A Cautionary Tale of Meme Coin Risks

It is a well-known story of an alleged cryptocurrency meme coin $HAWK developed by a teen girl, called the Hawk Tuah girl, Haliey Welch, in the intensive world of cryptocurrency, innovation, and speculation.

A more recent launch, the $HAWK token, named in honor of Welch going viral on the internet in December 2024, reached a market capitalisation of close to 400 million within the blink of an eye, only to crash to half of that in the next few hours making investors shake their heads and raised allegations of a fraudulent venture. This article discusses the regulatory risks associated with the $HAWK cryptocurrency and their implications for meme coins in the UK and beyond.

Shocked and Humiliated By The U.S.A

Haliey Welch, a native of Belfast, Tennessee, became an overnight sensation in June 2024 after appearing in a viral TikTok video where she used the line “hawk tuah” to make a humorous reference to a sexual act. Her Southern accent and eccentric nature have catapulted her to internet fame, which has seen the creation of a podcast, merchandise, and now, the $HAWK meme coin.

Presented as an opportunity to rally her group of fans together and counter the presence of impersonators selling her name as NFTs, the Solana-powered project received a lot of publicity indeed, with Welch and her associates, including overHere Ltd. and the Tuah The Moon Foundation, promoting the token.

But it was not to be; the coin would top shortly after its launch. In just a few hours of its launch, the value of $HAWK plummeted to a low of under 20 million pounds, INSTEAD of the initial 400 million pound valuation, and investors suffered losses even before the launch, exceeding 120,000 pounds.

Critics such as crypto sleuth Stephen Findeisen (Coffeezilla) said the Welch team had been involved in a so-called pump-and-dump operation where insiders artificially inflate a coin to increase its price, then dump their tokens, leaving retail investors with worthless tokens. Blockchain data revealed that one wallet acquired 17.5 percent of the token supply, then dumped them at a profit of a million pounds within 90 minutes. Furthermore, 96 percent of the supply was controlled by a group of related wallets, indicating potential manipulation.

Regulation Risks in Focus

The saga of the $HAWK highlights a considerable regulatory risk with cryptocurrencies and meme coins, namely, not being registered as a security. Cryptoassets are regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), with tokens that can be classified as securities required to operate under the high regulatory standards put in place by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

In December 2024, a lawsuit was filed against OverHere Ltd., its founder and CEO, Clinton So, the Tuah The Moon Foundation, and influencer Alex Larson Schultz in the U.S. District Court in New York, alleging that they had promoted and sold $HAWK as an illegal security. The plaintiffs claimed that, according to the Howey Test, which defined the basics as investment in some common enterprise in anticipation of getting fruits of other people’s efforts, the token qualified as subject to the securities laws.

It is a significant risk to meme coins, which can be hype-driven and may not have underlying worth. The FCA has cautioned that those cryptoassets with little or no obvious utility or backing, as most meme coins have, are very risky to consumers because of their volatility and risk of fraud. The case involving $HAWK is similar to previous events, as in 2021, Kim Kardashian was fined the equivalent of $1 million because she sponsored EthereumMax, failing to disclose that she had an economic interest in it, and reflecting growing UK and US regulatory interest in celebrity crypto endorsements.

Interests of AML and Consumer Safeguarding

The second regulatory threat associated with $HAWK is the lack of adequate consumer protection. Many were left with substantial losses after Welch’s subsequent devastation of the coin, which led newcomers to crypto investments to lose their money, having been lured in by Welch’s pursuit of fame. FCA has reiterated that investors taking up crypto investments are not under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), so they are at risk.

Also, anti-money laundering (AML) concerns are raised by the fact that blockchain transactions are pseudonymous. The high level of wallet balancing and pattern of high-speed sell-off in the $HAWK token implies possible insider trading that should interest the FCA investigations within the AML and market abuse compliance.

Jurisdictional Challenges

Regulatory risks are further compounded by the fact that cryptocurrencies are global. Whereas the UK is working on an actual crypto to be put by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, the HAWK token was already an addition to Solana, and its creators are based in the US and the Cayman Islands already.

This aspect of jurisdiction fragmentation makes enforcement more problematic, as regulators such as the FCA and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) might not approach the subject in the same manner. The fact that she was not even mentioned in the lawsuit against the people who made up $HAWK, even though she was a part of it, can mean that she was not one of its masterminds. Still, her participation makes intermediaries and the idea of accountability in cross-border crypto projects questionable.

Investor and Regulators’ Lessons

The issue of the $Hawk underlines the necessity to have more transparent regulation and vigilance on the side of investors. Welch has even apologized, saying in an interview with Vanity Fair in May 2025, “I hate that it is even a thing. I was especially disappointed when it worked out the way it had.” She mentioned having some knowledge of crypto and is part of a complaint seeking damages of 120,000 pounds against her due to investor losses. As far as meme coins are concerned, the FCA and SEC will likely tighten restrictions, potentially introducing compulsory disclosures, lock-up periods for insider tokens, and more rigorous AML/KYC requirements.

The investor can learn a lesson from the crash of the $HAWK. Meme coins are incredibly risky due to the hype and lack of practical use. Vigorous research and skepticism about the use of celebrities are essential to avoid being tricked by a pump-and-dump scheme or rug-pull. The balance between innovation and regulation will be crucial to ensuring consumer protection and trustworthiness of crypto, and the UK is going to become one of the crypto hubs.

To sum up, regulatory risks facing the Hawk Tuah Girl cryptocurrency, including unregistered securities, omissions, consumer protection, and jurisdictional complexities, characterize the issues in the meme coin environment more broadly. The saga of the $HAWK should leave a lesson: even in the turbulent crypto industry, popularity and buzz can not replace openness and regulation.