Haliey Welch charged with memecoin fraud

After the controversy surrounding the memecoin Hawk Tuah, the founders must now answer in court for fraud.

A group surrounding social media personality Haliey Welch, known for the Hawk-Tuah meme, will soon be sued. This is according to an official lawsuit. Several investors have the group accused of fraud.

The background to the case is the launch of the memecoin HAWK, based on a viral video clip. The coin was launched on Dec. 4, quickly reached a market capitalization of $490 million (about €465 million), but then collapsed completely.

According to data from Bubblemaps and Dexscreener controlled a combination of insider wallets and so-called "snipers" - traders who quickly buy up large quantities when new tokens are launched - between 80% and 90% of the total stock at the start of HAWK.

The team behind memecoin allegedly enriched themselves enormously as a result. They are accused of a "back pull," defrauding investors by suddenly selling large amounts of tokens. The creators of memecoin deny the allegations.

The aggrieved are demanding restitution of their investments and compensation through the courts. Whether they will succeed in this remains to be seen.