Hunter Biden launches crypto meme coin making light of laptop scandal
Hunter Biden is turning his notorious laptop into a crypto play — launching a $LAPTOP meme coin that will hand out tokens to investors who lost money betting on President Trump’s digital currency.The former first son plans to launch $LAPTOP on Wednesday using Coinbase’s blockchain network Base, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing people familiar with the project.The coin will have a total supply of 1 billion tokens.Biden and his fellow founders are slated to receive nearly a third of the 1 billion coins, according to the Journal.They will have to wait six months before selling any of their allotment, which will become fully available over two years.Meanwhile, some of Trump’s crypto investors could get a piece of Biden’s new venture for free.Biden is reportedly setting aside some 20% of the $LAPTOP coins for people who lost money on the president’s $TRUMP token.Trump’s meme coin has been brutal for many investors who piled in after its launch.
It recently traded around $2.27 — nearly 97% below its January 2025 record of $73.43.Nearly 1 million retail traders lost an estimated $3.8 billion on the token, according to a July 2026 report by Democratic staff on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which cited blockchain analysis.Other analyses have put losses among losing traders at $3.2 billion to $4.5 billion.The losses came even as Trump-linked entities stood to benefit from the token.
CIC Digital, a Trump Organization affiliate, and Fight Fight Fight LLC together controlled 80% of the original 1 billion-token allocation, according to the coin’s official disclosures, while Trump-linked entities also receive trading revenue.The new Hunter Biden coin comes with an unusual gimmick: As much as 30% of its supply could be permanently destroyed if a series of predetermined events come to pass — potentially making the remaining tokens scarcer.In crypto parlance, the practice is known as “burning,” or permanently taking coin...