Hunter Biden's "LAPTOP" meme coin plunged 98% within minutes of launch

Hunter Biden launches 'laptop' memecoin: A satirical financial experiment

On Wednesday morning, Hunter Biden launched a memecoin themed with the "laptop" that made him a political laughing stock. He claimed that the move was aimed at correcting speculative chaos in the field of political tokens, but what is regrettable is that the token lost almost its full value within less than an hour of opening. This strong irony has obviously not been ignored by anyone.

What is a $LAPTOP token? Why would Hunter Biden publish it?

$LAPTOP will be officially launched on the Base Network (the Ethereum Layer 2 network built by Coinbase) on September 9, 2026 at 8:00 am EDT, with a total supply fixed at 1 billion tokens. Biden packaged it as a "recapture" of the symbol. "They turned the laptop into a weapon, and I turned it into a token," he wrote on social media. At the same time, he clearly warned holders not to expect him to provide price support. He positioned the project as a memecoin built around resilience, redemption and recovery, and directly attacked existing political tokens, pointing out that nearly 1 million wallets lost a total of approximately $3.8 billion while holding the $TRUMP token.

The structure of the token is quite unique among projects issued by celebrities. 30% of this is allocated to founders, including Biden, for a lockup period of six months and will be gradually released over two years;20% is used for airdrops;10% is used for liquidity pools; and 5% is allocated to foundation treasury and charity. The remaining 30% is tied to a series of public forecasts, including the Democratic Party's election victory in 2028, Bitcoin's record high, and $LAPTOP's overtaking $TRUMP by market value. If the prediction comes true, the relevant tokens will be destroyed; if the prediction fails, the relevant tokens will be donated to charity.

Judging from the paper design, this is indeed more thoughtful than most political tokens. However, the real market does not give it room for survival.

How fast does the price of $LAPTOP fall?

is extremely fast, and the specific data depends on the data source observed. According to widely cited data, the coin's price plunged from a high of nearly $199 to an absolute low of $1.36 in 90 minutes, a drop of as much as 98%. Other data sources showed a peak of $190.81, falling as low as $3.70 in the first hour, and then stabilizing at around $4.77. DEXScreener data showed that the token soared to $316.75 within minutes of its launch, but had dropped back to around $6 by noon UTC.

Valuations during this window are purely mathematical fiction. Arkham data showed that the fully diluted valuation (FDV) briefly touched $144 billion, while the liquidity pool was only about $48,000. The Block reported a peak market value of nearly $110 billion before falling more than 99%. This huge gap reveals the truth: multiply the thin circulation volume by 1 billion headline supply and you can create any market value number you want, but it makes no sense. Since only 10% of the supply is used for liquidity, and 35% of the tokens are unlocked on the launch, a small number of sell orders from airdrop recipients are enough to break through the price defense line.

Does $LAPTOP really compensate $TRUMP losers?

This is the most vulnerable part of the viral narrative and deserves clarification because this misinformation is spreading everywhere. The headline stated that "20% of the airdrops will be allocated to people who lose money on $TRUMP," but the actual composition is different. Of these 20%, only 2% of the total supply is earmarked (designated) for traders who have lost money in Trump's memoin transactions and distributed through partner exchanges that set their respective eligibility rules. Another 8% was allocated to users who subscribed to Biden's Substack platform as of September 6. The remaining 10% is for subsequent discretionary (discretionary) airdrop rounds, with the timing and recipients determined by the foundation.

As a result, the so-called "compensation" share is only one-tenth of what the headline implies and is routed through exchanges whose methodology is not disclosed and whose simple holding address claim paths cannot be confirmed. At the same time, the largest share of the airdrop went to Biden's own newsletter subscription list. For investors still holding, the second 10% problem is arguably more serious. An undated, discretionary airdrop is not a distribution plan, but a risk of overhanging supply that could fall at any time.

Who was in a good position before release?

The data on the first day of the chain painted a disturbing picture. Arkham, an address marked as belonging to the project's multi-signature wallet, received 100 million tokens (one-tenth of the total supply) a week before the launch, and subsequently sold about 42.5 million tokens. Four days before the launch, 15.5 million tokens flowed to market maker GSR through intermediary addresses; about two hours before the deal opened, approximately 14.5 million tokens-the largest single pre-issue allocation-flowed into an unidentified wallet.

The buyer's situation looks worse. Bubblemaps found that more than 80% of wallets that purchased the token lost money after issuance, totaling more than 11,500 wallets. In addition, about 60% of the top holders are wallets newly opened and invested in the past 10 days. Although these have not yet been proven to be misconduct and pre-allocation to market makers is standard practice, the pattern is familiar: insiders and market makers hold inventory before the market opens, retail investors buy the first positive line, and the liquidity pool is too shallow to absorb subsequent selling pressure.

Is the era of political memes over?

Probably not yet, although its half-life is shrinking.$ It took several months for TRUMP to fall from a high of above $73 in January 2025 to around $2.22 today. $LAPTOP completes the same process in just the time to brew a cup of coffee. At least an hour after launch, at least 14 copycat coins appeared on other chains, some of which showed ridiculous valuations with little to no volume, further revealing who is still playing in the game.

The really interesting question is whether the predicted destruction mechanism will have a real impact over time, since 30% of the supply is in a structure: based on real-world results, the tokens are either cancelled or donated to charity. This is at least a novel attempt at the "issue and discard" model. Whether anyone still held it when the outcome of the incident is announced is another matter.

So far, the lesson remains a lesson repeatedly learned by memin traders: a token that promises to repair the last speculative bubble is still essentially a token with only 10% liquidity, 35% unlocked on the first day, and no mechanism to support price increases.