Hunter Biden's new $LAPTOP memecoin, which launched on September 9, 2026, suffered a dramatic price collapse almost immediately after its release. This follows a trend of politically-themed memecoins, such as those launched by Donald Trump and Eric Adams, which also saw sharp declines after their initial surge, leading to accusations of being "rug pulls." A rug pull in the cryptocurrency world occurs when developers abruptly abandon a project and sell off their large holdings, leaving other investors with substantial losses. The quick devaluation of $LAPTOP mirrored the performance of Trump's $TRUMP memecoin, which peaked at approximately $75 before falling to an all-time low of about $1.35 and trading around $2.26 on September 8, 2026.
The $LAPTOP project was intended to put the 2020 laptop controversy behind Biden by transforming the subject of mockery into a cryptocurrency. However, the token's swift crash led to immediate backlash on social media platforms like X, with users criticizing Biden for launching what some perceived as a scam, drawing parallels to previous political token failures. Analyst Nic Puckrin of The Coin Bureau commented that "the world probably doesn't need another political meme coin, especially given what happened with $TRUMP," suggesting that even high initial demand does not guarantee a sustainable investment. The project had announced plans to distribute 20% of its supply to traders who lost money on Trump's token, aiming to attract interest and potentially offset some negative sentiment.
Key details of the token's structure included an initial supply of 1 billion $LAPTOP tokens, with 30% held by Biden and the founders, locked for six months and fully vesting in two years. Another 20% was slated for distribution through free token giveaways to those who incurred losses from the $TRUMP memecoin and subscribers to Biden’s Substack, as well as a mailing list run by Andrew Callaghan, though Callaghan later distanced himself from the token's rollout. The remaining half billion tokens were allocated for liquidity and operations (20%), and 30% for a deflationary "event burn" tied to 30 real-world triggers, such as a Democratic win in the 2028 presidential election or Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high.
