Hunter Biden, son of former US president Joe Biden, has announced the launch of a memecoin inspired by the laptop that became a political weapon against him in the 2020 US election. The token, called $LAPTOP, is due to launch on Wednesday (9th) on Base, the layer-2 network built on Ethereum by Coinbase, according to reporting published by the Wall Street Journal and confirmed in a post by Hunter on X.
Hunter's post showed only the $LAPTOP ticker and the launch date, alongside a video with clips of news reports and Trump administration officials referencing the computer. The memecoin uses as its branding one of the most controversial episodes of Hunter Biden's public life: the laptop left at a repair shop in Delaware in 2019 and later seized by the FBI.
The computer contained emails, documents, financial records and personal images belonging to Hunter, becoming one of the main themes exploited by allies of Donald Trump ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Hunter's lawyers have argued that the files on the laptop were tampered with, while he himself has used social media, podcasts and his newsletter to rebut accusations and discuss his personal story.
Memecoin to distribute tokens to Trump investors
The launch also carries a direct political element. According to the reports, part of the token supply will be distributed to wallets that suffered losses on the $TRUMP memecoin, launched by Donald Trump before his return to the White House in January 2025.
CoinDesk reported that the project will have a total supply of 1 billion tokens, with 30% of the supply allocated to founders and 20% reserved for airdrops. Burn mechanisms would also be tied to political and market events, such as a Democratic victory in 2028, $LAPTOP surpassing Trump's memecoin in market capitalisation, or Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high.
The reference to Trump is not incidental. The $TRUMP and $MELANIA memecoins, launched in January 2025, surged shortly after their debut before plunging. According to the Wall Street Journal, $TRUMP reached close to US$15 billion in market capitalisation before falling sharply, while Trump reported billions in gains from his memecoin and other crypto ventures.
Surveys cited by the US press indicate that many retail investors suffered heavy losses on Trump's token. The New York Post, citing a report from Senate Democrats based on on-chain analysis, said nearly 1 million traders lost roughly US$3.8 billion on the memecoin.
Traders already criticising the token before launch
Even before its debut, $LAPTOP has already drawn a negative reaction from parts of the crypto market. CoinDesk said traders had criticised the project ahead of launch, mainly over the share allocated to founders and the risk of yet another political memecoin luring retail investors chasing quick gains.
Memecoins are crypto assets generally traded more on humour, narrative, community and speculation than on traditional financial fundamentals. The Wall Street Journal itself noted that these tokens have no intrinsic value and often suffer steep drops shortly after launch.
Hunter Biden, for his part, has become more vocal about crypto in recent months. He posted on X that Congress needs to "truly understand the value and potential utility" of cryptocurrencies and called decentralised digital currencies an "inevitable future".
The $LAPTOP launch comes at a time when politics and crypto are increasingly intertwined in the United States. After Trump turned memecoins, stablecoins and family-linked projects into a campaign and business theme, Hunter Biden is now trying to convert a personal political scandal into a digital asset. It remains to be seen whether the market will view the token as a wry provocation, a speculative bet, or simply another example of the risks of memecoins tied to public figures.
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