Things could be getting serious for the Hawk Tuah girl, after a professional lawyer reveals the charges that she could potentially incur if allegations facing the launch of her 'meme coin' are true.
It's certainly been a whirlwind since Hawk Tuah girl, otherwise known by her real name Haliey Welch, rose to viral fame through a TikTok and YouTube interview.
She has since gone on to disavow the creators that thrust her into the social media limelight, and has taken advantage of the attention placed on her to start a successful podcast, launch her own AI dating app, and even step into the world of cryptocurrency.
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It's within that last step, however, that things seem to have gone downhill, as she now faces allegations of security fraud, deceit, and insider trading, as the coin crashed shortly after going live.
The coin, named '$HAWK', launched with a market cap of $490 million but quickly dropped to just $41 million within 20 minutes of launch. Many have claimed that this was a classic case of a 'pump and dump' scheme, where the creator of the coin sells off all their stock to start, causing the price to dramatically drop.
Welch has denied this accusation in a post on X (formerly Twitter), claiming: "Team hasn't sold one token and not 1 KOL was given 1 free token."
Data has alleged that there were more than 80 wallet addressed that had not purchased tokens, and 96% of the supply was controlled by the team and sent out to these individual smaller wallets.
Many have called for her to get jail time for this, and while the internet is certainly full of jokes, those accusations might be closer to reality than you might expect, at least according to one lawyer.
As explained by Yuriy Brisov, a partner at Digital and Analogue Partners law firm, Welch could face charges of security fraud from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and also money laundering or wire fraud from the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Brisov detailed, in an interview with the Coin Telegraph:
"In the context of cryptocurrencies, the legal framework is still evolving. If Welch's team possessed non-public information about the token's launch or had pre-arranged strategies to sell significant portions of the supply, leading to the token's price collapse, such actions could be scrutinized under fraud or market manipulation statutes."
There has been no announcement of an investigation from the relevant authorities just yet, but if one does arise and the allegations placed against Welch and her team are true, she could be in serious trouble.
She is far from the first social media star to have been involved in an alleged crypto scam though, as huge names like MrBeast and Logan Paul among others have faced similar accusations.