Hunter Biden's LAPTOP meme coin experienced a dramatic collapse on its first trading day, dropping approximately 98% from its peak price. The token's foundation has since disputed scam allegations, instead attributing the decline to automated trading bots and thin market liquidity.
The token launched at $0.05 per unit on Wednesday before spiking to nearly $199 within two minutes, then crashing sharply. According to the foundation, predatory sniper bots—automated programs designed to exploit newly launched token pools—amplified the price swing. One trader reported a $1.18 million profit while another sustained a $200,000 loss during the volatility.
The foundation released a statement through Medium after X suspended the project's official account hours following the crash. Hunter Biden shared the statement from his personal account on September 10.
Response and Remedial Actions
The team denied that insiders profited ahead of the collapse. Founders hold 30% of tokens under a six-month lock and two-year vest at Coinbase Custody, the foundation stated. The project conducted no presale and distributed no allocations to investors or influencers.
To stabilize the market, the foundation announced plans to inject 4 million tokens—0.4% of total supply—into Aerodrome liquidity pools. Additionally, two prediction events resolved in the affirmative, triggering a 10 million token burn and reducing overall supply by 1%.
Extent of Losses
Onchain analytics firm Bubblemaps documented substantial losses among traders. Roughly 80% of LAPTOP token holders finished with underwater positions. The firm identified two wallets that each lost between $100,000 and $1 million, approximately 100 wallets that lost more than $10,000, around 700 that lost more than $1,000, and roughly 11,000 that sustained smaller losses.
The foundation stated it would not take responsibility for making the token more valuable for holders, emphasizing that traders should not expect such support.
