Shortly after launching on Wednesday, her “Hawk” digital coin reached a $490 million market valuation before abruptly dropping almost 95% of its value in a matter of hours.
Because of this, some people, like YouTube cryptocurrency investigator Coffeezilla, have accused Ms. Welch of defrauding investors by engaging in a “pump and dump” scheme, in which the creators of a coin inflate its value prior to debut and then sell it for a profit.
She has refuted claims that any of the tokens her team possessed were sold.
Ms. Welch’s representatives have been contacted by the news for comment.
The statement, “Team hasn’t sold one token,” was posted on X (previously Twitter) on Wednesday.
No “KOL” (key opinion leaders) received a free token, she said.
