The release of viral influencer Haliey Welch's Hawk Tuah memecoin caused an uproar on social media as the newly issued token surged briefly before crashing rapidly amid a controversial launch involving accusations of snipers and insider wallets.
Welch has refuted any claims of insider trading or activities by her team or any related entities. The Hawk Tuak (HAWK) memecoin was introduced at 10:00 pm UTC on Dec. 4 and quickly soared to a market cap of $490 million.
The token's price then plummeted to $41.7 million at the time of publication, representing a 91% drop in less than three hours, according to DexScreener data.
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Aggregated data from Bubblemaps and Dexscreener indicated that a combination of insider wallets and snipers, entities that rapidly purchase large quantities of a token at launch, controlled between 80%-90% of HAWK's supply at launch.
BIT Mining saw 3X profits mining DOGE, LTC instead of just Bitcoin
Crypto mining company BIT Mining announced that its venture into mining proof-of-work coins Dogecoin and Litecoin has been more profitable than solely mining Bitcoin.
Previously focused only on Bitcoin mining, BIT Mining revealed on Dec. 4 that its operations in Dogecoin and Litecoin have been almost three times more lucrative than Bitcoin mining alone.
Up until Nov. 27, the company mined 227,908,250.38 DOGE, valued at $94.8 million, and 84,485.42 LTC, worth $10.7 million.
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The company did not disclose how much of the mined DOGE and LTC it retained, despite both cryptocurrencies experiencing significant increases over the past month. BIT Mining reported holding 22.6 BTC at the end of 2023, currently valued at $2.2 million.
Trump taps billionaire fintech CEO with SpaceX ties to head NASA
On December 4, United States President-elect Donald Trump announced that Jared Isaacman, a billionaire fintech CEO, skilled pilot, and the first person to place a sports bet from space, would be nominated as the next NASA commissioner, pending congressional approval.
If confirmed, Isaacman would become the 15th individual to lead NASA, succeeding Bill Nelson, a veteran Florida Democrat. Isaacman is currently the CEO of Shift4, a financial technology and payments company processing over $260 billion annually with more than 200,000 clients.
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He is also well-known for his strong connections with fellow tech magnate Elon Musk and SpaceX, a commercial NASA partner.
In 2021, Isaacman financed and led the Inspiration4 mission, a private spaceflight aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Resilience. He returned to space in September 2024 as the commander of the Polaris Dawn mission, where he became the first private citizen to conduct a spacewalk.
