• Haliey Welch, AKA Hawk Tuah Girl, made her first major public appearance at a celebrity poker tournament in Las Vegas following backlash over the $HAWK token
• The $HAWK token hit reached a $500m market cap, before collapsing to near-zero, prompting investor ire and accusations of the project being a "rug pull"
• Welch expressed regret over the incident, and was remorseful about her association with the project, which she acknowledged did not fully understand

Haliey Welch, better known to netizens as Hawk Tuah Girl, has resurfaced at a celebrity poker at Aria in Las Vegas, arguably her first public appearance following the debacle involving her $HAWK cryptocurrency, which fans and onlookers accused of being a rug pull.

Hawk Tuah Girl is back in the public eye at a poker tournament

Rug pulls are a type of crypto scam where developers create a token, artificially boost its value through hype or liquidity, and then suddenly withdraw their funds, causing the token’s value to crash, often to zero.

Since many crypto tokens rely on investor trust rather than intrinsic value, or the backing of a central bank, this sudden exit by the creators leads to a panic sell-off by other holders, rapidly draining the token’s capitalization.

Welch gained popularity during an accidental YouTube appearance, during which she said her catch phrase: "You got to give them that ‘hawk tuah’ and spit on that thang," she said at the time, propelling her to meme-culture stardom.

The newly-christened Hawk Tuah girl then embarked on a series of projects seeking to capitalize on that momentary and possibly fleeting fame in order to build a brand around herself. She supposedly patented the Bet on That Thang brand, which was speculated would see her launch into sports betting.

Shortly after that, she launched the $HAWK token, which hit $500m capitalization before crashing to the ground. According to Bubblemaps, however, a blockchain analytics firm, 97% of the capital in $HAWK was controlled by either insiders or early and strategic investors.

So, how has the fallout played out? Welch has hired a publicist to argue her case. On the $HAWK coin matter, her advisor has chosen to steer clear of this painful episode.

Vanity Fair did approach Welch and asked her if it was appropriate for her to play at the poker tournament so soon after the $HAWK debacle, but her publicist said that Welch would not answer that specific question.

Respectable placement in the tournament, but what’s next for Welch?

However, she did take a respectable fifth place out of the 10 available spots. When asked if she was playing with her own money, however, Welch simply stated that she wasn’t sure and that the hosts would probably know how it worked out.

She did acknowledge the pain of people who have lost money, however, and cautioned that tying your name to about anything is not a wise thing to do.

"I don’t know. It was one of those things that just happened, and I feel sorry for everybody who just lost money…. I don’t know. I’ve learned from that. You've got to be really careful what you tie your name to, and you definitely need to know what you’re getting yourself into when you agree to do it," she told Vanity Fair.

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