Hailey Welch, aka Hawk Tuah Girl, released her highly anticipated memecoin on Solana Wednesday. While $HAWK initially saw a surge of a whopping $500 million, the value dropped to $60 million in just 20 minutes. As the shocking crash caused some buyers to lose their “entire savings,” netizens accused the 21-year-old of “rug pull” and “pump-and-dump” crypto scams.

Hawk Tuah Girl’s meme coin $HAWK crashes within minutes, buyers lose all their money

Just minutes after launch, $HAWK shot up to $500 million, instilling buyer confidence. However, this was short-lived as the cryptocurrency crashed to $60 million in 20 minutes. Buyers of the meme coin, who were primarily Welch fans, suffered significant financial losses. The sudden crash caused a stir, with many accusing the internet personality of scamming them using “rug pull,” a type of exit scam that usually occurs in the cryptocurrency market.

What is Carpet Pull?

“A rug pull is a type of exit scam in which a team raises money from investors and the public by selling a token, only to then quietly close the project or suddenly disappear, stealing the raised funds and killing “investors” (i.e “leaving their victims) with worthless tokens,” according to CoinDesk.

$HAWK buyers demand Hailey Welch face prison time

Fans quickly flocked to social media to draw attention to her losses, with one of them blaming Welch for the loss of “life savings.” “My $35,000 that I bought on $Hawk is now $2,000 after 10 minutes of buying. I’m a big fan of Hawk Tuah, but you took my savings. “I purchased your $Hawk coin that you were so excited about along with my life savings and my children’s college education fund,” one X user wrote.

“You didn’t mention that you would buy 97% of the offer and sell it almost immediately to make a big profit. If I had known this information, I would not have purchased your coin. Please help me or who can I contact for a refund? If not, I will be forced to take legal action,” they added.

Crypto enthusiast Bento Boi warned netizens to stay away from cryptocurrencies, especially celebrity coins. The internet personality shared his assessment of the dramatic crash, writing: “$HAWK TUA memecoin developer made over $2 million in 10 minutes?!” 96% of the supply is held in a cluster. Most important insight: Stay away from celebrity coins. Here is the situation.”