Joe Rogan raises alarm over SEC's clearance of 'Hawk Tuah' girl Haliey Welch, questions growing meme coin chaos

On episode #2298 of The Joe Rogan Experience, the popular podcaster and fellow stand-up comedian Kurt Metzger touched on the ongoing controversy surrounding social media influencer Haliey Welch, who became an internet meme back in 2024 for her 'Hawk Tuah' catchphrase.

In late 2024, Welch found herself at the center of a scandal involving her $HAWK token meme coin. She was accused of artificially inflating the coin's value through misleading public statements to sell it at a higher value, which coincided with the coin's value skyrocketing to $500 million before decreasing to $25 million.

This drew the attention of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). However, she has since been cleared of any charges by the SEC, which stunned Rogan, who said:

"Has she? Wait a minute, are you serious or are you joking? Okay, so is that because she didn't have anything to do with the crime or is it because there wasn't a crime? What is it? But is it a crime? Is it illegal? This is the question with all this fake money stuff."

Thereafter, the longtime UFC commentator expressed both confusion and concern over the meme coins.

"This is why it's so confusing. If you have these meme coins and people are genuinely making millions of dollars from real meme coins, but still it's kind of... bullsh*t. It's kind of a fake money, and anybody can kind of make it in and sell it. Like there's no rules, right? Like, you can dump it, right?"

Check out Joe Rogan expressing his shock over the Hailey Welch scandal and meme coins (3:50):

Welch was a point of interest back in 2024 for many across the internet, including former UFC double champion Conor McGregor.

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Joe Rogan is familiar with a UFC figure involved in another meme coin scandal

While Haliey Welch is who currently drew Joe Rogan's attention for her meme coin scandal, there is another public figure who was involved in a similar controversy. Last year, undefeated UFC middleweight Khamzat Chimaev heavily promoted the SMASH meme coin on all of his social media platforms.

Check out Khamzat Chimaev promoting his meme coin:

This sparked an uptick in the coin's value. However, after less than a day, the coin underwent an astonishing sell-off, causing the value to plummet to 94%. Ultimately, this caused investors to face a loss of $1 million. Chimaev has since pled ignorance, claiming to also be a victim.