Haliey Welch Cries While Talking Crypto Controversy: 'I Feel Really Bad'

Haliey Welch has spoken out in the wake of last year’s meme-turned-crypto controversy, albeit not without some additional controversy.

In footage from a new Talk Tuah episode with FaZe Banks, who has since called out the video’s surfacing and urged Welch to “fire everybody,” the “Hawk Tuah” meme star is seen getting emotional when looking back on the initial controversy from last December.

“I’m still a little shook up about it,” Welch said as Banks explained his intention for agreeing to appear on the episode, complete with “a couple crypto nerds” in tow. From there, Welch offered a “thank you” to her fans before ultimately pausing her remarks to fight back tears.

“I wanna start by saying thank you to all my true fans and all the people that actually watch my stuff and keep up with me,” she said. “We’re trying to sort out all the pieces and stuff to get all this figured out and make everything right. Oh my god. I’m gonna cry.”

Later, acknowledging that tears had indeed made an appearance, Welch added, “It rolled out.” When reflecting on how the move into the crypto space was first presented to her and her team last year, Welch admitted her own lack of expertise in the field and her general skepticism about it. Still, she says this particular project was pitched as a way to do something positive in the crypto space.

“So basically how this idea got bought to me, it was supposed to be more of a long-term coin,” she said. “The guy that ran the account, he was like, ‘oh, we’re gonna change the way everybody thinks of crypto, crypto is gonna be a good place.’ And I feel really bad for all the people that got affected by it. It just didn’t go the way I planned.”

The conversation eventually turned to behavior from those involved on the day of the coin’s launch that Welch considered “suspicious,” as well as her recollection of how she first started to see that “something’s wrong” despite how the project had allegedly been pitched to them.

“It was supposed to be done the right way. … It was brought to me in a positive way, something good and long-term, but it didn’t go that route at all,” Welch said, calling the controversy “a smack in the face.”

As of this writing, if you were to go looking for the full Talk Tuah episode in question, you wouldn’t find it—not via any official avenues, at least. While clips from the episode have indeed surfaced on social media, the official Talk Tuah YouTube channel did not have the episode listed as of Friday morning. Welch’s socials, meanwhile, also had no mention of the episode.

Banks said in an X update on Thursday that Welch’s people had “completely fucking fumbled the bag yet again,” calling the larger situation a “fucking mess.” He also specified what he says were his stipulations for agreeing to be on the episode in the first place, including an alleged agreement that it would only be released “if we explicitly green-lit it.”

As previously reported, Coffeezilla, known for his deep-dive investigational YouTube videos, shared a video last December titled, “Exposing the Hawk Tuah Scam.” In the video, Coffeezilla broke down what he saw as key issues with the $HAWK launch, which many critics had accused of being a “rug pull” at the time. Those behind the launch, however, pushed back against such criticism.

In a statement shared to X in December, notably after news of potential legal action made headlines, Welch said that she was “committed” to helping those who had been affected by the disastrous launch.

“I take this situation extremely seriously and want to address my fans, the investors who have been affected, and the broader community,” she said at the time. “I am fully cooperating with and am committed to assisting the legal team representing the individuals impacted, as well as to help uncover the truth, hold the responsible parties accountable, and resolve this matter.”