Hunter Biden’s LAPTOP memecoin lost about 99% of its value within hours of its September 9 debut on Base, after briefly trading near $320. Biden denies a rug pull, but blockchain data compiled by Bubblemaps shows more than 80% of buyers ended up in the red.The token opened on Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network, with a total supply of 1 billion. It spiked to roughly $190 within the first two minutes and touched about $320 at its peak, before collapsing to $3.70 inside the hour and eventually trading under $1. Total trading volume since launch measured about $39 million, a modest figure for a token that drew national headlines, and the tradable float stayed thin because most of the supply was locked at launch.
What the project promised
Biden announced the token after a Wall Street Journal report. The stated design allocated 30% to founders including Biden, locked for six months and vesting over two years. Another 20% was set aside for airdrops to wallets that lost money on the TRUMP memecoin, to Biden’s Substack subscribers and to a mailing list run by video journalist Andrew Callaghan. Unclaimed airdrop tokens were to be burned. A further 30% was earmarked for burning if 30 specified events resolved in the project’s favor, among them a Democratic win in 2028, a new bitcoin all-time high, or LAPTOP’s market cap overtaking TRUMP.In his X posts before launch, Biden framed the token as a reclamation of the laptop story that dogged his father’s presidency. “The symbol they used to try to end me is now a symbol of resilience, redemption, and recovery,” he wrote. He also told buyers not to expect price support: “You should not expect me or anyone else to make this token more valuable for you.” “LAPTOP isn’t just about owning something, it’s about saying something,” he added in another post.
The on-chain record
The crash drew immediate scrutiny. Bubblemaps labeled the launch a “bloodbath” and reported that over 80% of wallets that bought LAPTOP were underwater. Several of the largest holders appeared to be newly funded wallets with no trading history.A wallet labeled as a Laptop Token address received 100 million tokens, about 10% of supply, seven days before launch, then sold 42.5 million of them into the market, according to on-chain data cited by Benzinga. Blockchain data reported by Quartz has also raised questions about Biden’s claim that nobody on his side sold. The project has not published a wallet-by-wallet accounting of the founder allocation.Eric Trump mocked the collapse on X, telling Biden to “go back to painting.” Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson joined in with a sarcastic post of his own. Neither comment addressed the token mechanics, but both amplified the story well beyond crypto circles.Biden rejected the rug-pull label. “The team’s allocation is locked. Nobody on our side sold, and nobody could have. I, personally, have not made a single dollar,” he said, attributing the spike and collapse to technical issues, insufficient liquidity and “predatory snipers” who tried to outpace liquidity providers. He said he intends to keep “ignoring the noise and reclaiming the narrative.”
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Peak price | About $320 |
| Price within the hour | $3.70 |
| Value lost at trough | Roughly 99% |
| Buyers underwater | Over 80% |
| Pre-launch wallet sale | 42.5M of 100M tokens |
| Trading volume since launch | About $39 million |
A familiar pattern
The debut followed the standard memecoin playbook and produced the standard outcome. TRUMP, launched at the start of 2025, peaked at a $15 billion market cap before falling more than 99%; Nansen data showed nearly one million wallets down a combined $3.8 billion by the end of June. Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, told MarketWatch his first reaction was “that’s so last year,” noting that the track record of memecoins has been rocky at best and that the token lacked the backer or timing to buck the trend.For LAPTOP holders, the unresolved question is whether the pre-launch sales and the newly funded large wallets ever get explained. Biden says the project will keep building its community, and the burn triggers remain in place, but the token now trades as a case study in how thin liquidity, locked supply and sniper bots can produce a 99% drawdown in a single trading session.
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