The meme coin HAWK, launched on December 5 with the participation of meme star Hawk Tuah, Haley Welch, collapsed within an hour after its debut. Users accused the project team of orchestrating a rug pull scam.

There has been a wild amount of fud circulating, let us explain:

The main piece going around @X is the 96% cluster seen on @bubblemaps which shows $HAWK tokens being sent by the deployer address (xxxx), to the related addresses, according to the tokenomics that was published.…
— overHere (@overHere_gg) December 5, 2024

Following its launch, heavily promoted by Welch herself, HAWK reached a market capitalization of $490 million, peaking at $0.049 per token. However, within the first hour of trading, the token plummeted to $0.006 before stabilizing around $0.003. As of this writing, the price stands at $0.0028.

HAWK Token Distribution

According to Bubblemaps, the distribution of the 1 billion HAWK tokens after minting was as follows:

3% — Allocated to the Meteora marketplace;
17% — Reserved for early investors under “strategic allocation”;
80% — Set aside for community rewards and team reserves.

Analysts highlighted that the 17% of tokens allocated to early investors were distributed across 285 wallets. These tokens were not locked, allowing their holders to sell immediately.

1/ We found that 285 investors joined $HAWK presale

• 89 wallets sold 100%
• 47 wallets sold ≥ 50%
• 19 wallets sold < 50%
• 130 wallets sold 0

💰 Total sold: $3.3M

🧵 ↓https://t.co/b3GpKDoHfG
— Bubblemaps (@bubblemaps) December 5, 2024

From these 285 wallets:

89 sold their entire holdings;
47 sold the majority of their holdings;
19 sold less than half;
130 wallets retained their tokens.

Early investors collectively made approximately $3.3 million from selling the tokens.

Team’s Response and Allegations

The overHere team, responsible for the token launch, and Haley Welch denied any wrongdoing, asserting that the distribution followed the tokenomics plan and that no team tokens were sold.

“Haley’s team did not sell any tokens. They were allocated 10% of the supply, locked for one year with a three-year vesting schedule. All other tokens were distributed across wallets per the tokenomics,” the team stated in X.

However, users criticized the project, accusing it of being a classic rug pull scheme.

This is hilarious 😆

Pretty sure also, this year or last year the SEC added a provision about "rug pulling".

Someone is getting fined for this, and if the value lost is high enough, might see jail time.

Too bad she's not famous enough to get the Wallstreet immunity treatment
— tweeTarded (@notTweeTarded) December 6, 2024

“This is ridiculous. I’m pretty sure SEC regulations already penalize rug pulls. If the amount is large enough, there could even be jail time,” one commenter noted.

Shortly after, a community note appeared under the explanatory post:

“The team and insiders have indeed been selling their tokens since the launch. Haley is lying and will likely have to answer to a judge.”

Some users shared alleged screenshots of insider wallets that reportedly sold millions of tokens.

pic.twitter.com/jGTULUSk0r
— Badnewsllama | SΞ (@Badnewsllama14) December 5, 2024

Analysts from Bubblemaps confirmed to Decrypt that the HAWK team did not sell their tokens. However, influencers and “strategic advisors” dumped large quantities of tokens onto the market, causing the price to crash.