WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.919 OK, so let's unpack this. You know, usually when 00:00:02.919 --> 00:00:05.700 we talk about, like, winning the lottery, there's 00:00:05.700 --> 00:00:08.179 a very clear established system for it. Right, 00:00:08.179 --> 00:00:11.019 like buying a physical ticket. Exactly. You go 00:00:11.019 --> 00:00:13.779 to a store, you buy a ticket, the numbered balls 00:00:13.779 --> 00:00:16.719 pop out of a machine, and, you know, you match 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:18.640 them, you win. Yeah. You stand there with a giant 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:21.140 cardboard check, smiling for the cameras. It's 00:00:21.140 --> 00:00:23.579 a very structured, almost mathematical event. 00:00:23.660 --> 00:00:26.339 Yeah, very predictable. But in the digital wild 00:00:26.339 --> 00:00:30.280 west, that structured lottery system just vanishes 00:00:30.280 --> 00:00:32.840 entirely. The winning ticket is completely accidental, 00:00:33.259 --> 00:00:36.420 the payout mechanism is pure chaos, and the person 00:00:36.420 --> 00:00:39.159 holding the ticket, well, they rarely even understand 00:00:39.159 --> 00:00:41.380 the game they've just won. Which brings us to 00:00:41.380 --> 00:00:45.000 June of 2024. Specifically, a street corner in 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:47.460 Nashville, Tennessee, and a woman named Haley 00:00:47.460 --> 00:00:50.170 Welch. Right. So welcome to a brand new deep 00:00:50.170 --> 00:00:52.109 dive. We have a very specific mission for you 00:00:52.109 --> 00:00:55.149 today. We were looking at a single comprehensive 00:00:55.149 --> 00:00:57.869 source, which is the Wikipedia page for Haley 00:00:57.869 --> 00:01:00.049 Welch. And depending on how online you are, that 00:01:00.049 --> 00:01:02.170 name might not immediately ring a bell. Yeah, 00:01:02.469 --> 00:01:05.409 right up until you hear her 2024 Internet moniker, 00:01:05.829 --> 00:01:07.689 which is, of course, the hawk to a girl. Right. 00:01:07.790 --> 00:01:10.109 So the mission here for you listening is that 00:01:10.109 --> 00:01:13.349 we are going to use this one Wikipedia article 00:01:13.349 --> 00:01:16.650 to completely deconstruct the modern life cycle 00:01:16.650 --> 00:01:19.510 of viral fame. Yeah. We want to show you exactly 00:01:19.510 --> 00:01:23.030 how a random like five second street interview 00:01:23.030 --> 00:01:25.890 transformed a factory worker into a multimillion 00:01:25.890 --> 00:01:29.370 dollar brand, a podcaster and eventually the 00:01:29.370 --> 00:01:32.150 center of a major financial scandal. It's wild. 00:01:32.269 --> 00:01:34.650 It really is. We're not just exploring what happened, 00:01:34.650 --> 00:01:37.760 but why it matters. Think of this. as your blueprint 00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:40.959 for how internet culture creates, scales, and 00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:43.719 sometimes entirely breaks its overnight celebrities. 00:01:44.159 --> 00:01:46.299 So the origin story is perfectly mundane, which 00:01:46.299 --> 00:01:47.980 I think is what makes the scale of the fallout 00:01:47.980 --> 00:01:52.420 so crazy. It's June 11th, 2024. Haley Welch is 00:01:52.420 --> 00:01:54.099 out in the Broadway district of Nashville. Just 00:01:54.099 --> 00:01:56.560 a normal night out. Exactly. She and a friend 00:01:56.560 --> 00:01:58.859 are approached by two guys, Tim Dickerson and 00:01:58.859 --> 00:02:01.180 Darius Marlowe, and they run a YouTube channel 00:02:01.180 --> 00:02:04.060 called Tim and DTV. This is your classic Vox 00:02:04.060 --> 00:02:05.900 Pop channel, you know. The man on the street 00:02:05.900 --> 00:02:08.879 interview format. Yeah, an absolute staple of 00:02:08.879 --> 00:02:10.939 internet content farming. They stand around with 00:02:10.939 --> 00:02:13.960 a microphone, ask provocative questions to strangers, 00:02:14.060 --> 00:02:17.199 and basically just hope for a funny reaction 00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:19.729 to feed the algorithm. And the interview actually 00:02:19.729 --> 00:02:22.650 starts off surprisingly pain. They ask her a 00:02:22.650 --> 00:02:24.990 pretty standard internet question, like, what 00:02:24.990 --> 00:02:28.150 makes you wifey material? Right. And according 00:02:28.150 --> 00:02:30.469 to the creators, Welch actually encourages them 00:02:30.469 --> 00:02:33.169 to spice up the questions. So Marlo takes the 00:02:33.169 --> 00:02:36.030 bait and asks, what's one move in bed that makes 00:02:36.030 --> 00:02:39.289 a man go crazy every time? And Welch. Delivering 00:02:39.289 --> 00:02:42.650 this in of a very strong Southern accent, drops 00:02:42.650 --> 00:02:44.689 the line that basically broke the internet for 00:02:44.689 --> 00:02:46.509 a month. She says, you got to give them that 00:02:46.509 --> 00:02:48.550 hock to and spit on that thing. With hock to 00:02:48.550 --> 00:02:51.349 a being, as the article medically notes, an onomatopoeia 00:02:51.349 --> 00:02:53.949 for spitting for lubricatory purposes. It's just 00:02:53.949 --> 00:02:55.610 it's like catching lightning in a bottle. But 00:02:55.610 --> 00:02:57.569 the bottle is a street microphone. That's a great 00:02:57.569 --> 00:02:59.969 way to put it. But when a video like this goes 00:02:59.969 --> 00:03:02.650 viral today, it's not like a traditional broadcast. 00:03:02.909 --> 00:03:05.889 It's like open source code. The very next day. 00:03:06.009 --> 00:03:09.150 June 12th, Marlowe uploads the clip to TikTok 00:03:09.150 --> 00:03:11.770 and the internet immediately strips the original 00:03:11.770 --> 00:03:14.370 creators of their ownership. Right, the decentralization 00:03:14.370 --> 00:03:16.870 of it. Yeah. Millions of anonymous users just 00:03:16.870 --> 00:03:19.250 rewrite the code. They grab the video, scrub 00:03:19.250 --> 00:03:22.250 the Tim and DTV watermark right off of it and 00:03:22.250 --> 00:03:25.389 repost it. They remix it, meme it, distribute 00:03:25.389 --> 00:03:28.229 it until the original context is entirely gone. 00:03:28.909 --> 00:03:31.830 Which brings up a big question. Does the creator 00:03:31.830 --> 00:03:34.449 of the viral moment own it or does the person 00:03:34.449 --> 00:03:36.729 who provided the spark? Well, what's fascinating 00:03:36.729 --> 00:03:39.590 here is the sheer futility of trying to control 00:03:39.590 --> 00:03:42.189 that open source distribution. Dickerson and 00:03:42.189 --> 00:03:44.710 Marlowe estimated they filed at least 50 copyright 00:03:44.710 --> 00:03:47.210 claims in just the days after they first published 00:03:47.210 --> 00:03:50.129 the clip. Wait, 50? In just a few days? 50. They 00:03:50.129 --> 00:03:52.030 were trying to use traditional legal mechanisms 00:03:52.030 --> 00:03:54.389 like takedown notices and intellectual property 00:03:54.389 --> 00:03:57.289 claims against a massive decentralized swarm. 00:03:57.449 --> 00:04:00.180 Good luck with that. Exactly. And while they 00:04:00.180 --> 00:04:02.599 indicated they were happy for Welch, they were 00:04:02.599 --> 00:04:05.479 deeply upset about not receiving credit or financial 00:04:05.479 --> 00:04:07.759 compensation for her fame. I mean, I get it. 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:11.039 It showcases the messy reality of viral ownership. 00:04:11.479 --> 00:04:14.020 You can set the stage, ask a question, and film 00:04:14.020 --> 00:04:16.420 the content. But once the collective internet 00:04:16.420 --> 00:04:19.180 decides something is a meme, it belongs to the 00:04:19.180 --> 00:04:22.279 algorithm. The creator becomes entirely irrelevant. 00:04:22.480 --> 00:04:24.180 The internet just takes the raw material and 00:04:24.180 --> 00:04:26.850 runs with it. Yeah. But, you know, while millions 00:04:26.850 --> 00:04:29.350 of anonymous accounts were fighting over engagement 00:04:29.350 --> 00:04:32.990 metrics and I .T. rights, the actual human being 00:04:32.990 --> 00:04:36.050 in the video was having a very different, deeply 00:04:36.050 --> 00:04:38.430 personal reaction. Yeah, we have to pull back 00:04:38.430 --> 00:04:40.730 the curtain on Hayley Welch's life before June 00:04:40.730 --> 00:04:43.449 11th to really understand this. This context 00:04:43.449 --> 00:04:45.769 is what grounds the entire narrative for you. 00:04:45.810 --> 00:04:48.410 She was from Belfast, Tennessee. She was raised 00:04:48.410 --> 00:04:50.449 by her paternal grandmother, and she worked in 00:04:50.449 --> 00:04:52.629 a bed spring factory, a bed spring factory, just 00:04:52.629 --> 00:04:55.980 totally normal blue collar life. Right. And she 00:04:55.980 --> 00:04:58.300 later shared on comedian Whitney Cummings podcast 00:04:58.300 --> 00:05:01.160 a very raw detail about her background. Her mother 00:05:01.160 --> 00:05:04.399 was a crack user and Walsh herself was born a 00:05:04.399 --> 00:05:07.199 crack baby. She has no contact with her mother 00:05:07.199 --> 00:05:10.779 anymore. Wow. So, I mean, imagine you're walking 00:05:10.779 --> 00:05:13.100 out of your blue collar shift at a factory in 00:05:13.100 --> 00:05:16.379 a small town. You check your phone. and suddenly 00:05:16.379 --> 00:05:18.839 50 million people are watching a five second 00:05:18.839 --> 00:05:21.120 clip of you from last weekend. It's terrifying. 00:05:21.220 --> 00:05:23.879 That is the terror of modern hyper -visibility. 00:05:24.639 --> 00:05:26.600 Her initial reaction wasn't to celebrate at all. 00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:29.139 The source quotes her saying she spent the first 00:05:29.139 --> 00:05:31.199 week literally hiding in her house. Yeah, she 00:05:31.199 --> 00:05:33.319 was mortified. She was so mortified she wouldn't 00:05:33.319 --> 00:05:36.060 go anywhere except to her factory job. She was 00:05:36.060 --> 00:05:38.600 experiencing the absolute shock of being perceived 00:05:38.600 --> 00:05:41.259 by the whole world without her permission. But 00:05:41.259 --> 00:05:43.850 then comes the turning point. The moment the 00:05:43.850 --> 00:05:46.149 entire trajectory of her life shifts is when 00:05:46.149 --> 00:05:48.730 she sees unofficial vendors selling merchandise. 00:05:49.730 --> 00:05:52.709 Shirts, hats, stickers with her face and her 00:05:52.709 --> 00:05:54.870 catchphrase are popping up everywhere. She realizes 00:05:54.870 --> 00:05:57.370 that total strangers are financially capitalizing 00:05:57.370 --> 00:05:59.870 on her identity. And her reaction to that was 00:05:59.870 --> 00:06:02.610 purely pragmatic. What did she say? She said, 00:06:02.870 --> 00:06:04.970 if everyone else is making money off of it, I 00:06:04.970 --> 00:06:08.079 might as well too. Wow. That is the moment she 00:06:08.079 --> 00:06:10.759 pivots from being a passive subject of a meme 00:06:10.759 --> 00:06:13.959 to an active participant in her own monetization. 00:06:14.500 --> 00:06:16.240 OK, wait. I have to push back on this idea of 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:20.220 her as a brilliant brand architect in that exact 00:06:20.220 --> 00:06:22.819 moment. Yeah. I mean, she didn't film the video. 00:06:23.199 --> 00:06:25.379 She didn't own the copyright. She was a factory 00:06:25.379 --> 00:06:28.910 worker hiding in her house. Was it really her 00:06:28.910 --> 00:06:31.829 actively architecting a brand, or was it a swarm 00:06:31.829 --> 00:06:35.149 of agents and managers swooping in to exploit 00:06:35.149 --> 00:06:37.449 a confused 20 -something before the internet 00:06:37.449 --> 00:06:39.850 moved on to the next shiny object? You know, 00:06:39.850 --> 00:06:42.310 that is a crucial distinction. The speed of the 00:06:42.310 --> 00:06:45.050 pivot strongly suggests the latter, an influx 00:06:45.050 --> 00:06:47.649 of professional capitalization machinery. Just 00:06:47.649 --> 00:06:49.769 look at the whiplash -inducing timeline here. 00:06:49.790 --> 00:06:51.670 Yeah, let's look at the dates. She quits her 00:06:51.670 --> 00:06:54.709 job at the Bed Spring factory on June 27th, barely 00:06:54.709 --> 00:06:57.410 two weeks after the street interview. She partners 00:06:57.410 --> 00:06:59.870 with a local apparel brand to start selling official 00:06:59.870 --> 00:07:02.069 merchandise. And within a couple of weeks, she 00:07:02.069 --> 00:07:05.829 makes over $65 ,000. $65 grand in a couple of 00:07:05.829 --> 00:07:09.120 weeks. Exactly. That is an incredible injection 00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:12.339 of capital, likely way more than a year's salary 00:07:12.339 --> 00:07:15.180 at the factory earned in a matter of days. You 00:07:15.180 --> 00:07:18.540 don't stand up a national supply chain and merchandising 00:07:18.540 --> 00:07:21.079 operation from your living room in Belfast, Tennessee, 00:07:21.560 --> 00:07:24.360 without professional operators stepping in to 00:07:24.360 --> 00:07:26.399 steer the ship. Oh, absolutely not. Yeah. And 00:07:26.399 --> 00:07:28.480 those operators immediately pushed her toward 00:07:28.480 --> 00:07:31.220 traditional cultural validation. The internet 00:07:31.220 --> 00:07:34.100 fame's bills out of the phone and into the real 00:07:34.100 --> 00:07:36.860 world with surreal speed. It really did. Two 00:07:36.860 --> 00:07:39.680 days after quitting her jobs at June 29th, she 00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:42.279 is pulled up on stage with massive country star 00:07:42.279 --> 00:07:45.199 Zach Bryan during his Nashville concert to sing 00:07:45.199 --> 00:07:48.500 Revival. Which is huge. Huge. A few days after 00:07:48.500 --> 00:07:50.459 that, she's hanging out with Shaquille O 'Neal 00:07:50.459 --> 00:07:53.240 during his DJ set. By July 2nd, she officially 00:07:53.240 --> 00:07:55.759 signs for Hollywood representation with an agency 00:07:55.759 --> 00:07:59.160 called The Penthouse. And then by August 15th, 00:07:59.160 --> 00:08:01.000 she is standing on a Major League Baseball mound 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:04.319 throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at a 00:08:04.319 --> 00:08:06.560 New York Mets game. But establishing a brand 00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:08.879 in a few months is one thing. Maintaining relevance 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:11.740 is an entirely different beast. When your fame 00:08:11.740 --> 00:08:14.980 is based on a five -second clip, the algorithm's 00:08:14.980 --> 00:08:18.189 clock is ticking very loudly. You cannot just 00:08:18.189 --> 00:08:20.990 remain a meme. You have to transition into a 00:08:20.990 --> 00:08:24.370 platform. That desperation to outrun the algorithmic 00:08:24.370 --> 00:08:27.110 death cycle leads directly into her next phase, 00:08:27.389 --> 00:08:30.129 which is attention diversification. Okay, here's 00:08:30.129 --> 00:08:32.149 where it gets really interesting. How do you 00:08:32.149 --> 00:08:34.570 diversify attention? You build a media empire. 00:08:34.700 --> 00:08:37.559 Right. So in September 2024, Welsh launches her 00:08:37.559 --> 00:08:40.559 own podcast called Talk Toa under Jake Paul's 00:08:40.559 --> 00:08:42.960 Better Company umbrella. Right. And what really 00:08:42.960 --> 00:08:44.899 stands out to me here is the guest list. I mean, 00:08:45.059 --> 00:08:46.740 this is someone whose fame was measured in months, 00:08:46.740 --> 00:08:49.740 and she is pulling massive names. Her first episode 00:08:49.740 --> 00:08:52.139 features Whitney Cummings, and she gets billionaire 00:08:52.139 --> 00:08:55.240 Mark Cuban. Mark Cuban. Yeah, and rapper Wiz 00:08:55.240 --> 00:08:58.210 Khalifa and Jojo Siwa. It just demonstrates the 00:08:58.210 --> 00:09:00.330 sheer currency of attention in today's world. 00:09:00.690 --> 00:09:02.769 Traditional gatekeepers care far less about your 00:09:02.769 --> 00:09:04.970 resume or your pedigree and far more about your 00:09:04.970 --> 00:09:07.509 reach. If you have the eyeballs, billionaires 00:09:07.509 --> 00:09:09.769 and platinum recording artists will gladly sit 00:09:09.769 --> 00:09:12.570 across the table from you. It's a symbiotic relationship. 00:09:12.730 --> 00:09:15.789 They get access to her massive, albeit chaotic 00:09:15.789 --> 00:09:18.929 viral audience, and she borrows their legacy 00:09:18.929 --> 00:09:22.029 credibility to legitimize her new platform. But, 00:09:22.230 --> 00:09:25.070 you know, when you have that much hyper focused, 00:09:25.309 --> 00:09:27.820 white hot attention on on you, you also become 00:09:27.820 --> 00:09:31.299 an empty vessel for the internet's weirdest impulses. 00:09:32.259 --> 00:09:34.500 Because her name was trending so heavily, she 00:09:34.500 --> 00:09:37.399 became an unwitting magnet for viral fake news. 00:09:37.539 --> 00:09:40.159 Oh, the fake news cycle was intense. Yeah, and 00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:41.940 I want to be super clear here to you listening. 00:09:42.360 --> 00:09:44.960 We take absolutely no political stance on what 00:09:44.960 --> 00:09:47.120 we're about to discuss. Yeah. We are strictly 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:48.980 and impartially reporting the facts from our 00:09:48.980 --> 00:09:51.320 source to highlight the mechanics of engagement 00:09:51.320 --> 00:09:53.870 farming. Right. And engagement farming is essentially 00:09:53.870 --> 00:09:57.309 when bad actors create fabricated, highly controversial 00:09:57.309 --> 00:10:00.090 content simply to harvest clicks, likes and shares, 00:10:00.149 --> 00:10:02.450 which they can then monetize. Welch's trending 00:10:02.450 --> 00:10:04.830 name was the perfect bait for that. Right. So 00:10:04.830 --> 00:10:09.009 in September 2024, a fake screenshot of an NPR 00:10:09.009 --> 00:10:12.389 article goes massively viral on Twitter. It claimed 00:10:12.389 --> 00:10:14.429 that former President Donald Trump had canceled 00:10:14.429 --> 00:10:16.590 a guest appearance on her podcast because of 00:10:16.590 --> 00:10:19.210 an assassination attempt in Florida. Totally 00:10:19.210 --> 00:10:22.789 fabricated. 100 % fake. Yeah. Then, in November, 00:10:23.610 --> 00:10:26.149 a fake CNN screenshot goes viral on Instagram, 00:10:26.549 --> 00:10:28.990 claiming that more than 75 ,000 write -in votes 00:10:28.990 --> 00:10:31.549 were cast for Hawk Tooa and Talk Tooa in the 00:10:31.549 --> 00:10:34.269 2024 United States presidential election. Again, 00:10:34.690 --> 00:10:37.259 completely untrue. Totally untrue. But it proves 00:10:37.259 --> 00:10:39.559 how her brand was hijacked. She was no longer 00:10:39.559 --> 00:10:42.679 just a person. She was a cultural shorthand that 00:10:42.679 --> 00:10:44.940 anyone could use to game the algorithm. And if 00:10:44.940 --> 00:10:47.460 we connect this to the bigger picture, her own 00:10:47.460 --> 00:10:50.159 team was also engineering incredibly surreal 00:10:50.159 --> 00:10:52.799 moments to keep the engagement farming going 00:10:52.799 --> 00:10:54.460 on their end. They knew they had to keep feeding 00:10:54.460 --> 00:10:56.840 the machine. Which explains the totally bizarre 00:10:56.840 --> 00:10:59.720 detour onto Howie Mandel's podcast. Yes. She 00:10:59.720 --> 00:11:02.600 takes a live DNA saliva test during a five -minute 00:11:02.600 --> 00:11:05.240 segment where the results allegedly showed she 00:11:05.240 --> 00:11:08.399 was ninety 27 .7 % Ashkenazi Jewish. Which is 00:11:08.399 --> 00:11:12.580 such a weird segment. Super weird. And the efficacy 00:11:12.580 --> 00:11:14.840 of that test was heavily questioned by the Jewish 00:11:14.840 --> 00:11:18.299 website, Jewlicious. And Welch herself claimed 00:11:18.299 --> 00:11:20.820 she had absolutely no knowledge of her family 00:11:20.820 --> 00:11:24.360 having any heritage like that. So why? do a live 00:11:24.360 --> 00:11:26.419 DNA test. Because it creates a new headline. 00:11:26.620 --> 00:11:28.840 Exactly. It spins up a new cycle of TikTok clips. 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:31.720 And then in November, she launches a dating advice 00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:34.299 app called Pookie Tools, partnering with Ben 00:11:34.299 --> 00:11:36.820 Gans. Pookie Tools. Yeah, Pookie Tools. Gans 00:11:36.820 --> 00:11:39.620 is the founder of an AI automation platform called 00:11:39.620 --> 00:11:43.080 Ultimate AI Studio. And you have to ask why an 00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:45.960 AI app? because tech valuations and software 00:11:45.960 --> 00:11:49.179 multiples are vastly higher than selling t -shirts. 00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:51.659 Oh, that makes total sense. Welch's team was 00:11:51.659 --> 00:11:53.820 throwing everything at the wall. Merchandise, 00:11:53.940 --> 00:11:56.740 a high production podcast, viral stunts, an AI 00:11:56.740 --> 00:11:59.100 dating app. They were desperately trying to build 00:11:59.100 --> 00:12:02.000 a diversified portfolio of attention to outrun 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:04.840 the incredibly short shelf life of a viral moment. 00:12:05.039 --> 00:12:07.299 But moving that fast and aggressively entering 00:12:07.299 --> 00:12:09.720 complex markets that you don't fully understand, 00:12:09.860 --> 00:12:11.980 I mean, that inevitably brings immense risk. 00:12:12.200 --> 00:12:14.570 You are essentially building a skyscraper on 00:12:14.570 --> 00:12:16.509 a foundation of a five -second meme. Yeah, the 00:12:16.509 --> 00:12:19.210 foundation is weak. Which sets the stage perfectly 00:12:19.210 --> 00:12:21.929 for the climax of this entire narrative, the 00:12:21.929 --> 00:12:24.730 crash. Because in the modern influencer economy, 00:12:24.830 --> 00:12:27.090 the crash almost always comes in the form of 00:12:27.090 --> 00:12:31.210 decentralized finance. So true. In December 2024, 00:12:31.870 --> 00:12:35.169 the empire building takes a very dark turn. Welch 00:12:35.169 --> 00:12:38.169 launches a cryptocurrency meme coin on the Solana 00:12:38.169 --> 00:12:42.570 blockchain called the HAWK token. Right. Let's 00:12:42.570 --> 00:12:44.730 break down the mechanics here, because understanding 00:12:44.730 --> 00:12:47.049 the how is crucial for you to get the full picture. 00:12:47.889 --> 00:12:50.149 The Solana blockchain is known for incredibly 00:12:50.149 --> 00:12:53.450 fast, incredibly cheap transactions. Because 00:12:53.450 --> 00:12:56.610 of that, it has become the casino of the crypto 00:12:56.610 --> 00:12:59.250 world. Anyone can create a meme coin in minutes 00:12:59.250 --> 00:13:01.870 for a few dollars. Exactly. And these coins have 00:13:01.870 --> 00:13:04.409 absolutely no underlying utility, no business 00:13:04.409 --> 00:13:07.809 model, and no intrinsic value. Their entire valuation 00:13:07.809 --> 00:13:10.370 is based purely on hype and attention. And when 00:13:10.370 --> 00:13:12.429 an influencer with millions of followers launches 00:13:12.429 --> 00:13:14.490 one of these tokens, the followers rush in to 00:13:14.490 --> 00:13:16.629 buy it, hoping to get in early on the next big 00:13:16.629 --> 00:13:19.389 thing. This massive influx of buying pressure 00:13:19.389 --> 00:13:22.269 causes the price of the coin to skyrocket artificially. 00:13:22.429 --> 00:13:25.789 And the numbers for the HIK token are just staggering. 00:13:26.330 --> 00:13:29.289 The coin hits a market capitalization of nearly 00:13:29.289 --> 00:13:32.029 500 million dollars. Half a billion dollars. 00:13:32.090 --> 00:13:34.570 Created out of thin air, purely based on the 00:13:34.570 --> 00:13:37.870 hawk to a brand. But here is the mechanical reality 00:13:37.870 --> 00:13:41.049 of meme coins. For someone to make millions of 00:13:41.049 --> 00:13:43.009 dollars selling at the top, there have to be 00:13:43.009 --> 00:13:45.149 thousands of regular people buying at the top. 00:13:45.269 --> 00:13:48.190 Right. In finance, this is called exit liquidity. 00:13:48.779 --> 00:13:52.039 The influencers trusting fans literally become 00:13:52.039 --> 00:13:54.820 the exit liquidity for the insiders. Which is 00:13:54.820 --> 00:13:57.320 exactly what the data suggests happen next. The 00:13:57.320 --> 00:13:59.519 token violently plummets from a $500 million 00:13:59.519 --> 00:14:02.179 valuation down to $25 million in a matter of 00:14:02.179 --> 00:14:04.659 days. A catastrophic collapse. A collapse that 00:14:04.659 --> 00:14:06.500 wipes out the investments of the regular people 00:14:06.500 --> 00:14:09.240 who bought in at the peak. And the fallout was 00:14:09.240 --> 00:14:12.120 instant and severe. Investors immediately started 00:14:12.120 --> 00:14:14.139 filing complaints with the U .S. Securities and 00:14:14.139 --> 00:14:16.659 Exchange Commission. The Internet just exploded 00:14:16.659 --> 00:14:19.840 with accusations. Yeah, calling it an exit scam 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:22.720 is a classic pump and dump scheme. You even have 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:25.320 prominent cryptocurrency journalist Coffeezilla, 00:14:25.799 --> 00:14:28.480 who specializes in tracking blockchain fraud, 00:14:28.879 --> 00:14:31.519 publicly accusing Welch and her team of insider 00:14:31.519 --> 00:14:34.970 trading. He showed blockchain data of wallets 00:14:34.970 --> 00:14:37.610 allegedly connected to the creators dumping massive 00:14:37.610 --> 00:14:39.950 amounts of the token at the peak. It was a huge 00:14:39.950 --> 00:14:42.730 mess. By the end of December, a lawsuit is officially 00:14:42.730 --> 00:14:45.370 filed in the United States District Court for 00:14:45.370 --> 00:14:47.850 the Eastern District of New York against the 00:14:47.850 --> 00:14:51.669 creators of the HIW coin for unlawfully promoting 00:14:51.669 --> 00:14:54.779 and selling unregistered cryptocurrency. Looking 00:14:54.779 --> 00:14:57.559 objectively at Welch's defense based on our source, 00:14:57.980 --> 00:15:00.299 she actually wasn't named directly in that specific 00:15:00.299 --> 00:15:02.799 lawsuit initially, but she did respond to the 00:15:02.799 --> 00:15:04.980 massive public litigation. What was her response? 00:15:05.379 --> 00:15:07.679 Well, she stated she took the situation extremely 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:10.019 seriously and fledged full cooperation with the 00:15:10.019 --> 00:15:12.340 legal parties involved. But her core defense 00:15:12.340 --> 00:15:14.899 was essentially one of total separation and ignorance. 00:15:15.100 --> 00:15:17.419 Oh, of course. She claimed she only received 00:15:17.419 --> 00:15:20.159 a marketing fee for the token and that she never 00:15:20.159 --> 00:15:23.740 made a single dime from the coin itself. Crucially, 00:15:24.179 --> 00:15:26.940 in May 2025, she made a public admission stating 00:15:26.940 --> 00:15:29.759 she knew, quote, essentially Zio about crypto 00:15:29.759 --> 00:15:32.960 when her coin launched. OK, I have to push back 00:15:32.960 --> 00:15:36.379 hard on this because this defense is the crux 00:15:36.379 --> 00:15:40.120 of the whole modern influencer economy. At what 00:15:40.120 --> 00:15:42.960 point does an influencer become responsible for 00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:45.240 the financial ruin of their followers? It's a 00:15:45.240 --> 00:15:47.580 great question. You cannot plead ignorance saying, 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:51.149 oh, I knew. essentially zero about crypto, when 00:15:51.149 --> 00:15:54.289 your name, your face, and your parasocial relationship 00:15:54.289 --> 00:15:57.450 with your fans are the precise mechanisms driving 00:15:57.450 --> 00:16:00.929 that $500 million valuation. If you take a marketing 00:16:00.929 --> 00:16:03.870 fee to sell a highly volatile, unregulated financial 00:16:03.870 --> 00:16:06.509 instrument to your fans, aren't you mechanically 00:16:06.509 --> 00:16:08.190 accountable for what happens to their money? 00:16:08.519 --> 00:16:10.639 This raises such an important question about 00:16:10.639 --> 00:16:13.620 the market reality of monetizing trust. You see, 00:16:13.840 --> 00:16:16.080 the defense of, I just lent my name to it, is 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:18.480 a relic from the old celebrity endorsement model 00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:21.279 of the 1990s. Yeah, totally. Selling a bad t 00:16:21.279 --> 00:16:23.799 -shirt or a subpar perfume is one thing. The 00:16:23.799 --> 00:16:26.679 customer still gets a t -shirt. Attaching your 00:16:26.679 --> 00:16:29.639 heavily trusted, intimate digital brand to a 00:16:29.639 --> 00:16:32.139 financial mechanism designed to extract wealth 00:16:32.139 --> 00:16:35.480 is entirely different. Exactly. When you monetize 00:16:35.480 --> 00:16:37.679 the trust of your audience in the crypto space, 00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:41.220 you are acting as a financial catalyst, regardless 00:16:41.220 --> 00:16:43.200 of your personal technical understanding of the 00:16:43.200 --> 00:16:46.080 blockchain. The sheer speed of Welch's rise meant 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:48.799 she acquired massive liquid influence before 00:16:48.799 --> 00:16:51.519 she had the infrastructure or the financial literacy 00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:54.299 to wield it without detonating her own community. 00:16:54.779 --> 00:16:56.179 So what does this all mean for you listening? 00:16:56.379 --> 00:16:58.700 Just look at the dizzying timeline we just walked 00:16:58.700 --> 00:17:02.860 through from June 2024 to early 2026. It's unbelievable. 00:17:03.259 --> 00:17:05.180 In less than two years, Haley Welch went from 00:17:05.180 --> 00:17:07.039 working in a bed spring factory in Tennessee 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:10.720 to a ubiquitous viral meme to a top charting 00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:14.119 podcaster interviewing billionaires. She becomes 00:17:14.119 --> 00:17:17.220 the subject of a 2025 documentary, appropriately 00:17:17.220 --> 00:17:20.960 titled Ductua. Oh, right. The documentary. Yeah. 00:17:21.359 --> 00:17:23.380 She books a television guest role on the show, 00:17:23.500 --> 00:17:26.970 Chad Powers, and she ends up at the center of 00:17:26.970 --> 00:17:29.910 a massive half billion dollar crypto collapse. 00:17:30.750 --> 00:17:33.069 It is the absolute extreme of the American dream. 00:17:33.089 --> 00:17:36.230 Fast forward to decentralized and heavily distorted 00:17:36.230 --> 00:17:38.490 by the Internet. We've spent this time examining 00:17:38.490 --> 00:17:41.069 how a single human being and the machinery around 00:17:41.069 --> 00:17:44.309 her monetized a passing phrase on a street corner. 00:17:44.990 --> 00:17:46.690 But I want to leave you with a lingering question 00:17:46.690 --> 00:17:49.289 to mull over, looking toward the immediate future. 00:17:49.309 --> 00:17:51.549 Play it on us. If a real person's five -second 00:17:51.549 --> 00:17:54.769 clip can be infinitely hijacked, revixed, and 00:17:54.769 --> 00:17:57.430 financially exploited by anonymous actors and 00:17:57.430 --> 00:17:59.970 algorithmic trends today, what happens tomorrow? 00:18:00.329 --> 00:18:03.049 We are entering an era where AI can generate 00:18:03.049 --> 00:18:06.470 photorealistic video and audio instantly. If 00:18:06.470 --> 00:18:08.589 the Internet's machinery can build a multi -million 00:18:08.589 --> 00:18:11.130 -dollar empire and a half -billion -dollar financial 00:18:11.130 --> 00:18:13.549 crash off of a five -second street interview, 00:18:13.990 --> 00:18:16.170 what happens when the algorithm no longer needs 00:18:16.170 --> 00:18:18.569 a factory worker from Tennessee to provide the 00:18:18.569 --> 00:18:21.250 spark? What happens when AI can generate the 00:18:21.250 --> 00:18:24.369 perfect viral moment entirely from scratch, bypassing 00:18:24.369 --> 00:18:27.289 the human being altogether? How does anyone evolve 00:18:27.289 --> 00:18:30.269 past a digital caricature when the caricature 00:18:30.269 --> 00:18:33.210 can be entirely fabricated? Yeah, the digital 00:18:33.210 --> 00:18:35.960 Wild West is about to get a lot wilder. You might 00:18:35.960 --> 00:18:37.759 have bought the winning lottery ticket of internet 00:18:37.759 --> 00:18:40.400 fame today, but tomorrow, the machines might 00:18:40.400 --> 00:18:42.519 just print the tickets themselves. Thank you 00:18:42.519 --> 00:18:44.099 for joining us on this deep dive. We'll see you 00:18:44.099 --> 00:18:44.460 next time.