Haliey Welch, best known as the star of the viral meme “Hawk Tuah,” is under fire after her newly launched cryptocurrency plummeted in value.

Its digital coin “Hawk” reached a market cap of $490 million shortly after its launch on Wednesday before suddenly losing more than 95% of its value within hours.

This has led some, including YouTube cryptocurrency researcher Coffeezilla, to accuse Ms. Welch of defrauding investors with a “pump and dump” – where the people behind a coin inflate its price before launch and then they sell at a profit.

She has denied allegations that her team sold tokens they owned.

The BBC has contacted Ms Welch’s representatives for comment.

“The team has not sold a single token,” she wrote in one Copy post and paste to X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday.

She added that no “KOL” (key opinion leaders) were given a free token.

Ms. Welch had previously distributed free Hawk tokens to some fans ahead of the social media release.

Hawk launched on the Solana blockchain around 10pm GMT on Wednesday and its market cap rose to a high of $490 million shortly after.

However, the amount fell sharply from that peak to around $60 million just 20 minutes later.

Fans and investors have accused Ms. Welch and her team of “misleading” and “betraying” them, suggesting the launch was a “rug pull” – with cryptocurrency proponents luring in buyers just for the sake of it then stop the trading activities and walk away with money generated from the sale.

A community note on Ms. Welch’s X post contradicts her statement and says her team has sold its Hawk coins since launch.

Coffeezilla, whose real name is Stephen Findeisen, also claimed that Hawk gave “insiders” an advantage.

“Unfortunately, in situations like this, they are not aimed at crypto bros, but mainly at real fans who have never been in the crypto space before,” he said in a video that has been viewed more than 1.4 million times.

He accused Ms Welch’s team of “profiting from a rug pull”.

“These people were unwilling to take any responsibility” for the “Hawk Tuah scam,” he claimed after sharing a clip of him speaking to some of the people behind the cryptocurrency.

Ms. Welch claimed in her post – by charging higher fees on an exchange.

The team behind the cryptocurrency, OverHere, has dismissed other claims about the launch in an X post.

It emphasized that “Haliey’s team has not sold any tokens at all.”

Meme coins like these are becoming increasingly popular for investors due to their fun and cheap appeal.

They are often considered less risky than better-known crypto assets like Bitcoin or Ethereum, but pose the same dangers – often with no protection for those who lose money with them.

Carol Alexander, Professor of Finance at Sussex University, told the BBC on Thursday that although more and more young people are investing in meme coins, many of them are losing money.

Several celebrities or influencers who have ventured into the crypto market have faced similar backlash.

In 2021, Kim Kardashian was US regulators imposed a $1.26 million fine after she failed to disclose that she had been paid to place an ad for a cryptocurrency program called EthereumMax.

Recently, YouTuber Logan Paul was accused of misleading fans by promoting crypto coins or investments without revealing his own financial interest in it.

Ms. Welch, known online as “Hawk Tuah Girl,” went viral after speaking the onomatopoeia “Hawk Tuah” – an imitation of the sound of someone spitting – during an interview in June.

It made the 22-year-old from Belfast, Tennessee, an overnight internet sensation.

She amassed hundreds of thousands of followers across various social platforms and launched her own merchandise and a podcast called Talk Tuah.

Your manager said the Hollywood Reporter in July What’s special about her is that she wasn’t looking for internet fame and stayed away from social media for mental health reasons for several months before appearing in the now-viral “Hawk Tuah” video.

Rolling Stone compared her fun, small-town personality to a “Gen Z Dolly Parton.”

Ms. Welch told TMZ ahead of Hawk’s launch on Wednesday that she launched it to crack down on “a bunch of scammers” pretending to be her and selling their own coins.

“It’s a really good way to get all of my fans and my community to interact and come together,” she said.