In summary
- HAWK, a newly launched memecoin, reached $490 million in capitalization before falling 93% in just minutes after its debut.
- Bubblemaps discovered that 285 wallets controlled 96% of the supply and sold massively, generating profits of $3 million.
- Although the team denies rug pull accusations, the crypto community rejected their explanations upon finding evidence of coordinated sales.
The “Hawk Tuah” girl launched a memecoin, which caused a lot of commotion. Here we tell you what happened.
Tell me if you’ve heard this before: accusations are circulating online that the project has been suddenly pulled, while the team behind the HAWK token strongly denies any wrongdoing.
On Wednesday evening, Hailey Welch, Ms. Tuah herself, launched the HAWK token with great enthusiasm. In less than 15 minutes, the token reached a market capitalization of $490 million before immediately collapsing more than 93% in value.
Apparently, a network of interconnected wallets sold large sums of the token as soon as the public began purchasing it, pocketing more than $3 million from the scheme.
On-chain data visualization company Bubblemaps determined on Thursday that 285 wallets collectively acquired around 96% of the HAWK supply during token pre-sales and giveaways. In the first few minutes of HAWK’s debut, most of those wallets sold their tokens for a quick profit.
Outrage immediately broke out on Crypto Twitter over what appeared to be a classic memecoin rug pull. Welch’s team quickly defended itself against the accusations, stating that the sales observed were standard elements of HAWK’s tokenomics roadmap.
“Hailey’s team has sold absolutely no tokens at all,” the team said. Welch, meanwhile, stated that no influencers or KOLs (“Key Opinion Leaders”) received free tokens.
Twitter users immediately pointed out HAWK’s massive sell-off by what appeared to be project insiders.
Bubblemaps told Decrypt that its analysis concluded that while the HAWK team has not yet sold any tokens, KOLs and “strategic advisors” connected to the project have dumped an extraordinary amount of their supply, leading to the collapse of its value immediately after launch.
Decrypt reached out to Welch’s team regarding those findings, but did not receive an immediate response.
Although a consensus has yet to be reached on Welch’s complicity in the saga, Crypto Twitter appears to have firmly made up its mind. The project’s explanation of irregularities during HAWK’s release was quickly tagged with a Community Note criticizing the post as intentionally misleading.
“Hailey is lying and will probably have to “talk to the judge” about this,” the note says.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair. Additional reporting by Ryan Gladwin.
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