Investors have filed a lawsuit against several entities involved in the launch of the Hawk Tuah (HAWK) memecoin on December 19, alleging that the defendants engaged in the promotion and sale of an unregistered securities offering.
According to the legal filing, the defendants named in the lawsuit include the Tuah The Moon Foundation, OverHere Ltd, Clinton So, and Alex Larson Schultz — who are accused of promoting the memecoin. Attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote:
“The pre-launch marketing for HAWK framed the token as more than just a speculative asset, portraying it as a cultural movement with significant growth potential. Welch’s involvement and her reputation as a trusted public figure signaled to her followers and potential investors that the project was poised for success.”
The Hawk Tuah memecoin surged to a market capitalization of approximately $491 million hours after its launch, but plummeted by more than 90% immediately afterward.
### The Rise and Fall of the Hawk Tuah Memecoin
The Hawk Tuah memecoin launched on December 4 with a market capitalization of roughly $16.6 million. The price of the coin surged after its launch, and within three hours, the memecoin’s market cap grew to $491 million. However, it then quickly dropped to approximately $41.7 million.
This price movement drew considerable backlash from investors on social media, who characterized the launch as a classic pump-and-dump scheme after the price of the memecoin collapsed.
Following the collapse of the token, some investors submitted complaints to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and encouraged others to do the same.
Haliey Welch, the social media influencer on whom the memecoin was based, denied allegations of insider trading by her or her team.
Popular YouTuber “Coffeezilla” took to social media to dispel rumors about the HAWK launch. The YouTuber argued that the launch of the memecoin was not a rug pull and that Welch’s team had pre-sold millions of tokens to “strategic advisers,” who offloaded the memecoin early.
Coffeezilla added that the claims of a $500 million rug pull or Welch profiting $50 million from the token launch were also misinformation and exaggerated allegations.