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On February 6, 2025, FaZe Banks released a statement on X addressing his appearance on a leaked episode of the Talk Tuah podcast hosted by Haliey Welch, the Hawk Tuah girl. He clarified that the episode was intended to discuss the cryptocurrency rug pull controversy that had garnered a lot of attention a few weeks ago.
In December 2024, Haliey Welch made headlines after being accused of rug-pulling the $HAWK meme coin on the Solana blockchain. This incident led to widespread backlash against the viral Hawk Tuah girl, who then promised to address the situation in an upcoming podcast episode. However, that episode was never officially released.
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After the leaked episode of the Talk Tuah podcast surfaced online on February 6, 2025, FaZe Banks explained why he had agreed to record the episode. He cited his desire to hear Welch's perspective on the controversy, adding that he had set specific terms for the discussion:
"So in an attempt to hear Haliey Welch’s side of the Crypto scam story, I agreed to do her first podcast back. I had heavy stipulations including; 1) Not allowing markets to be manipulated by leaking this episodes existence before a resolution was found. 2) Her team finding a REAL solution regarding the money she made, where that should go and what to do with the $HAWK project moving forward."
The FaZe Clan CEO had stipulated that no market trades for the Hawk Tuah meme could be made and no information about their collaboration would be leaked. However, he claimed that these conditions were breached due to either a leak of information about the podcast or alleged insider trading, leading to the episode's cancellation:
"These incompetent retards leaked and/ or inside traded the token. We noticed a random spike in volume on the coin 2/2 along with random messages asking us if we did the podcast. Very clearly her team was not as solid as they claimed to be. They completely blew it and we called the episode off right then and there."
FaZe Banks sympathizes with Haliey Welch, says the Hawk Tuah girl should fire her team for messing up cryptocurrency meme coin project
After explaining why the Talk Tuah episode did not come out, FaZe Banks addressed the leak and sympathized with Haliey Welch, calling her a "poor girl" due to the cryptocurrency debacle:
"Now today, the episode “randomly” gets leaked. The price of $HAWK is pumping and they completely fucking fumbled the bag, yet again. What a f**king mess. Poor girl, it’s a wonder how she found herself in this position in the first place."
FaZe Banks then addressed Welch directly and urged her to dismiss her entire team:
"Now @HalieyWelchX I’m going to speak to you direct and say the exact same thing I said to you on spaces that night. Fire everybody, your team's f**king retarded."
The FaZe Clan CEO concluded by advising his followers to avoid the $HAWK coin, asserting that the majority of the supply is controlled by "unknown developers":
"FULL DISCLOSURE NOBODY FROM OUR TEAM HAS EVER/ WILL EVER OWN $HAWK TOKENS. HIGHLY ADVISE ANYONE FOLLOWING THE STORY STAY FAR AWAY FROM THIS AS A MAJORITY OF THE SUPPLY IS OWNED BY UNKNOWN “DEVELOPERS.”"
In related news, Kick streamer Adin Ross recently announced a collaboration with FaZe Banks to create a GTA 6 RP server, which will feature cryptocurrency integration once the game is released.
