What happened to 'Hawk Tuah girl'? Hailey Welch speaks out after cryptocurrency scandal

What was meant to be 15 minutes of fame turned into half a year in the limelight for YouTube sensation Hailey Welch, who gained attention as the “Hawk Tuah girl”.

Capitalising on the viral video that brought her TikTok stardom and catapulted her into the memesphere, the twentysomething was briefly everywhere online.

But she has been noticeable of late only for her absence after her attempt to launch a cryptocurrency ended up in a sheepish apology video. The ensuing scandal prompted her to comment on a podcast that she was going to bed to “sleep on it” and figure it out in the morning.

Fans are now wondering if she is still asleep.

Here is what we know about Welch and what happened to “Hawk Tuah girl”.

What happened to ‘Hawk Tuah girl’?

Who is Hailey Welch?

Good question. We know that she hails from Belfast, not in Northern Ireland, but from the southern US state of Tennessee, and she was 21 when she rose to fame.

In June 2024, it was probably just another ordinary evening for her when she approached YouTube vox poppers Tim & Dee TV on the street while out with a friend. The backstory is that she and her friend had asked Tim (Dickerson) and Dee (DeArius Marlow) to “spice up” the questions.

The now-infamous clip emerged when DeArius asked Welch: “What’s one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time?” She replied, “You gotta give ’em that hawk tuah and spit on that thang.”

(The R-18 rated translation is that she refers to spitting on her partner’s penis to provide lubrication during oral sex… “Hawk Tuah” is an onomatopoeic term for the sound of spitting.)

Welch’s Southern accent and no-nonsense attitude turned her into an internet sensation, with different versions of the clip garnering hundreds of millions of views across various platforms. Some stars are born on stage, others in the Olympic stadium or Parliament — then there are the ones who capture the world’s attention with jokes about oral sex during a street interview.

Hailey Welch factbox

• Hailey Welch was born in Belfast, TN, in 2002.

• She shot to fame in 2024 after a viral video emerged of her being interviewed in the street, coining the now infamous ‘hawk tuah’.

• Before her viral success, she worked in a bedspring factory.

• Welch was quick to capitalise on her new-found fame, launching the Talk Tuah podcast in September, 2024.

• However, there were only 13 episodes of the podcast before she went radio silent after memecoin controversy.

However she got there, Welch had built a following of 1.8 million on TikTok and 2.5 million on Instagram by February 2025.

After false rumours circulated online that she had been a sacked teacher, Welch cleared things up by revealing she had worked in a spring factory. But she left her job to pursue fame and fortune, earning $65,000 (£51,180) in merchandise sales and launching the Talk Tuah podcast (yes, the pun is intentional), featuring star guests such as Wiz Khalifa.

She’s also dipped her toes into music, even sharing her song with Khalifa himself. After a guest appearance by Jake Paul, she was ringside at the celebrity boxer’s showdown with Mike Tyson.

She has even ventured into music and played her song to rapper Khalifa. Following a guest appearance from Jake Paul, she was ringside at the celebrity boxer’s bout with Mike Tyson in November 2024.

What happened to Hailey Welch?

In December, Welch launched Hawkcoin, a memecoin cryptocurrency, which initially soared to a $500 million market cap.

However, its value plummeted by 95 per cent in just one day.

Fans quickly accused her of a “pump and dump scam”, where insiders artificially inflated the value before selling off their holdings. This left genuine investors with worthless assets.

Following this, Welch made her renowned “I’m gonna go to bed” contribution to a Spaces Instagram chat call about the coin.

She last posted on X (formerly Twitter) on December 20. “I take this situation extremely seriously and want to address my fans, the investors who have been affected, and the broader community,” she wrote. “I am fully cooperating with and am committed to assisting the legal team representing the individuals impacted, as well as to help uncover the truth, hold the responsible parties accountable, and resolve this matter.”

A spokesman for the parent company of Hawkcoin, overHere, said: “We believed in that vision so much that pushed harder and harder, perhaps through rose-tinted glasses and naivety about others’ intentions, even as the project began to unravel.”

Since then, there have been no new posts, and the last episode of Talk Tuah aired in December. However, this may not be the last we’ve heard from Welch.

A leaked clip from an upcoming episode shows her tearfully apologising. However, when the episode will be released is unknown.