Key facts
- Hunter Biden launched the $LAPTOP meme coin on the Ethereum layer-2 network Base.
- The token experienced a rapid price surge to $190.81 within two minutes of launch.
- Shortly after, the token crashed by approximately 99%, trading near $4.77 within an hour.
- The token's fully diluted valuation briefly reached $144 billion against a small liquidity pool.
- A portion of the token's supply was airdropped to crypto community members and those who lost money on Donald Trump's $TRUMP coin.
- Founder tokens are subject to a six-month lockup period.
Hunter Biden has launched a cryptocurrency meme coin named $LAPTOP, directly tied to the controversy surrounding his laptop. The token, issued on the Ethereum layer-2 network Base, experienced a dramatic price surge shortly after its debut, reaching a peak of $190.81 within two minutes of its 8 a.m. ET launch on Wednesday. This initial spike implied a fully diluted valuation of nearly $144 billion against a liquidity pool of only $48,000.
However, the token quickly followed a pattern seen in many celebrity and political meme coins, experiencing a sharp decline. Within an hour of its launch, the $LAPTOP coin had shed approximately 99% of its value, trading around $4.77. This rapid pump-and-dump cycle was largely attributed to the significant gap between the token's implied valuation and its actual tradable liquidity, with timing measured in seconds determining profit or loss for early traders.
The tokenomics of $LAPTOP include a six-month lockup period for founder tokens and a portion of the supply allocated for airdrops, including to those who lost money on Donald Trump's $TRUMP coin. This strategy directly references the fate of previous political meme coins, which have often resulted in significant losses for investors. Despite the initial crash, the token's price showed some volatility in the low single digits later in the day, with a market capitalization of $780 million and a fully diluted valuation of $2.2 billion.