Hunter Biden's LAPTOP meme coin experienced a dramatic launch-day collapse, soaring from roughly $0.05 to approximately $317 in less than two minutes before plummeting 98%. Nearly a month after the September 9 launch, Biden released an independent forensic investigation blaming two market makers for the cryptocurrency's disastrous debut.
Biden stated the meme coin was intended to mock President Donald Trump's cryptocurrency while potentially supporting charitable causes. "Within minutes, we had a chart that looked like every celebrity rug ever. Completely broken," he wrote on X.
Extreme Liquidity Imbalance
According to the forensic review conducted by crypto intelligence firm Groom Lake, the token launched with severe liquidity constraints. Market Maker 1 allocated only $5,200 of its $500,000 available capital to the trading pool, leaving fewer than 30,000 tokens available for trading—approximately 0.003% of the one-billion-token supply.
The imbalance created unprecedented price volatility. Groom Lake's analysis indicated a $6 purchase could move the token's price as much as a $7,400 sale, a ratio the firm found unprecedented when compared against 668 other token launches.
Market Maker Gains
Biden's accounting estimated market maker profits from launch-day trading. The first market maker's decentralized exchange positions finished approximately $686,000 ahead, while the second market maker generated more than $2.1 million in total estimated gains.
The first market maker withdrew liquidity just 84 seconds after the price peaked, leaving traders without an exit.
Onchain Investigation Finds Additional Complications
Pseudonymous onchain researcher Dethective independently examined Biden's findings and confirmed several central claims but identified additional wallet activity not fully addressed in the published investigation.
Dethective identified three additional wallets controlled by the same three signers that transferred more than 50 million LAPTOP tokens to centralized exchanges Kucoin, Gate, and Kraken during the two weeks preceding the report. An additional 10 million tokens reportedly reached Gate on October 2.
"So is Hunter right? In part," Dethective concluded, suggesting that while market makers profited from team-provided supply, other team-linked wallets might also have generated proceeds from the transactions.
Current Status and Biden's Response
As of Thursday afternoon, LAPTOP traded around $0.075 per coin, approximately 99.96% below its launch-day peak and down roughly 20% over the preceding 24 hours.
Biden stated his founder tokens remain locked for six months before vesting over two years. "I'm not walking away," he wrote on X. Biden also announced plans to burn most unclaimed tokens from the project's initial airdrop the following week.
Dethective noted that publicity surrounding the forensic investigation itself appeared to briefly elevate LAPTOP's price, potentially benefiting the market makers Biden criticized.
