Hunter Biden’s newly launched memecoin, $LAPTOP, experienced a dramatic collapse on Wednesday, shedding roughly 95% of its value just hours after debut. The token’s trajectory mirrors the precarious nature of the memecoin sector, which rarely retains value beyond the initial launch window.
The project was first teased in an exclusive report by the Wall Street Journal less than two days prior. Following the publication, Biden confirmed his involvement via his X account, framing the currency as a symbol of “resilience, redemption, and recovery.” He also criticized the Trump family for launching their own memecoins, alleging they had broken public trust.
According to data aggregated by CoinMarketCap, the token opened with a reference price of approximately $37. It surged to a high exceeding $222 per coin within minutes of the start of trading. However, those gains evaporated quickly, with the price dropping to around $1.80 by early Wednesday afternoon.
Trading volume recorded on Pump.fun totaled approximately $39 million. Despite the high turnover, distribution data from Basescan indicates that supply concentration remained extreme. The five largest wallets out of nearly 29,000 held 84% of the free float, while the majority of the 1 billion total tokens remained under lockup. The tradable portion of the market capitalized at just under $500 million.
Market experts expressed skepticism about the venture. Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, described his initial reaction as, “That’s so last year,” noting that memecoins historically suffer from rocky track records and often lack the backing necessary to sustain momentum.
Biden stated that tokens would be distributed to his subscribers and individuals on a mailing list managed by video journalist Andrew Callaghan. However, Callaghan’s representative, Mitchell Jackson, disputed the connection, telling MarketWatch that Callaghan was unaware of any crypto affiliation and had been misled by Biden regarding the purpose of sharing the contact list. Callaghan and his Channel Five platform have publicly condemned memecoins.
The launch comes amid broader scrutiny of celebrity-driven crypto projects. Chainalysis data shared by the New York Times revealed that hundreds of thousands of wallets associated with the Trump family’s $TRUMP token are currently sitting on losses. Biden also noted that some $LAPTOP tokens were airdropped to wallets that had previously lost money on $TRUMP.
The token operates on the Base network, an Ethereum-based blockchain spearheaded by Coinbase. A Coinbase representative clarified that the network is permissionless and does not endorse or review the tokens deployed on it.
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