It’s that quiet, end-of-December period for tech news. Still, alongside our usual retrospectives on tech in 2024, the Russian government is cracking down crypto, and final seasons of hit Netflix phenomena are on their way.

UPDATE: Dec. 20, 2024, 11:10 a.m. EST Less than 24 hours after Mashable published this story, Hailey Welch has broken her silence with a statement on the failed $HAWK memecoin.

Hawk Tuah Girl became a breakout internet star over the summer, and her viral origin story is all too common in the digital age. It started with one of those man-on-the-street interviews designed to go viral. The questions were sexual in nature, and that, combined with the setting (a.k.a. the party scene in Nashville), was a recipe for success.

Haliey Welch, aka the "Hawk Tuah Girl," has resurfaced with a public statement after a controversy over her memecoin $HAWK.

Connections is the latest New York Times word game that's captured the public's attention.

