The HAWK memecoin created by Haliey Welch has been controversial after its price plummeted by more than 90% in a few hours. The crash has elicited insider trading and market manipulation claims, shocking investors. The HAWK went live on December 4 at 10 PM UTC. Within a few hours, the token spiked by more than 900%, and its market capitalization reached $490 million.
Price Crash and Fallout
According to data from DEXScreener, HAWK’s price at the start was $0.005492; at its peak, it reached $0.04916 before a decline. The analysis of on-chain data showed that several early investors, so-called ‘snipers,’ earned more than 135 million HAWK tokens selling them. One trader was said to have earned a profit of $1.3 million from a single trade.
The situation got worse when reports emerged that insiders held most of the HAWK token supply. Some investors accused that more than 80% of the tokens were concentrated in fewer than ten wallets. This raised questions about why the launch was conducted fairly and the possibility of price fixing.
Consequently, Welch defended against the allegations of wrongdoing. She revealed on Thursday in an X post that neither she nor any KOLs received free tokens. Welch pointed out that the launch was rather transparent and said no tokens went to insiders or influencers.
SEC Complaints and Scrutiny
However, many investors paid heed to Welch’s confidence and still doubted it. Some of the investors who fell victim to the crash have reportedly lodged their complaints with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It has been suggested that the memecoin launch may have breached securities laws, explaining the increased attention.
Dogwifhat Surpasses Bonk as Solana’s Leading MemecoinWelch’s team had tried to deter sniping on the Meteora platform by charging high transaction costs. Nevertheless, Solscan data showed that one wallet acquired 17.5% of HAWK tokens right after launch for almost $1M in WSOL. This wallet liquidated all its tokens within one hour and made a profit of $1.3 million.
