After her rise to internet fame, Haliey Welch (popularly known as Hawk Tuah Girl) is again trending because of a sharp pivot into selling adult-oriented subscription content following the collapse of her highly publicized cryptocurrency project.
Welch became an overnight sensation in June 2024 after street interviewers captured her delivering an enthusiastic answer to a salacious question outside a Nashville bar. Her response, “You got to give him that hawk tuah and spit on that thing,” turned her into the viral Hawk Tuah Girl.
Within weeks, Welch formed her LLC “16 Minutes” and began appearing at concerts, launching merchandise that generated $65,000 in sales within just 17 days. The internet celebrated her as an all-American woman, honest and industrious, partly because she initially hid from the attention. Her management team positioned her as a grounded Southern girl countering sensationalist celebrity culture, complete with animal shelter donations documented on social media.
By July 2024, Welch had launched her podcast “Talk Tuah” in partnership with Better, co-founded by Jake Paul. However, the podcast struggled to maintain viewership, with the first episode reaching 2.8 million views while subsequent episodes failed to break one million. Her team pushed increasingly questionable products, including Pookie Tools, an AI dating app.
The turning point came in December 2024 when Welch launched her meme coin, $HAWK. Marketed as a way to fund her animal charity Paws Across America, the coin collapsed within 30 minutes of launch, losing 98% of its value.
Investigators traced insider trading and pre-sales that generated over $1.8 million in fees while regular investors lost everything.
Welch received $125,000 upfront for promoting the coin, though she claimed on her podcast that all those funds went toward crisis PR and legal fees rather than her charity. She later stated she was cleared by the SEC after investigators examined her phone, though the agency refused to confirm this publicly.
In November 2025, she was added to the Burwick Law lawsuit, with attorneys arguing that “while less technically sophisticated than the other actors, she played a critical operational role by providing the trust vector through which millions of retail investors were induced to participate.”
With her podcast viewership declining and her reputation damaged, Welch has pivoted to new revenue options. On Fanfix, a subscription platform typically used for adult content, she posted messages offering photos for $200, including one promoting how “ticklish this cowgirl really is” with feet emoji.
She has also attempted to become a gaming stre amer on the Talk Tuah YouTube channel, though one broadcast reportedly attracted only nine active viewers.
A viral post on X began circulating widely, featuring a screenshot from Welch’s Instagram story. Welch appeared in a cheetah-print bikini alongside a link inviting users to subscribe.
The post quickly gained traction, surpassing 9.4 million views, and soon drew reactions from other creators.
Among them was OF creator Dan Dangler. She reposted the viral screenshot on X and added, “I thought she would never do [c*rn?] I suppose when life hits the fan you gotta keep making $ somehow.”
Dangler’s remark referenced a 2024 Instagram video in which Welch firmly denied ever joining OF. At the time, she told followers to stop asking for a link in her bio, insisting she didn’t have an account and never would. During a Q&A session, she reiterated that she wasn’t “comfortable doing that, ever.”
