Hunter Biden’s recently launched LAPTOP token left nearly 80% of traders underwater within hours of trading, despite being pitched as a response to memecoin speculation. Hunter Biden is the son of former US President Joe Biden.
Data from blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps showed that 12,151 of the token’s 15,206 traders lost money, while 3,026 were profitable and 29 broke even or held positions that could not be priced. Most losses were relatively small, with 11,311 wallets down less than $1,000. However, 726 traders lost between $1,000 and $10,000, 112 lost between $10,000 and $100,000, and two were down between $100,000 and $1 million.
Conversely, gains were heavily concentrated. Just 10 wallets made between $100,000 and $1 million, and 78 earned between $10,000 and $100,000. These 88 traders collectively generated about $5.57 million in profit, keeping aggregate trader profit and loss slightly positive at roughly $178,342 despite the widespread losses.
The outcome countered one of Biden's primary arguments for launching the token. He had previously criticized President Donald Trump’s TRUMP memecoin for generating massive collective losses for retail wallets, while promising that LAPTOP would feature an airdrop for some of those affected investors. Before the launch, Biden stated that buyers should not expect him or anyone else to increase the token's value.
According to Arkham Intelligence, LAPTOP began trading on Base and peaked roughly two minutes later. Due to thin liquidity in the initial pools, the fully diluted valuation briefly flashed at about $144 billion despite a liquidity pool containing only around $48,000, allowing relatively small trades to dramatically alter quoted prices. The token subsequently dropped more than 95% over the next half hour.
Trading outcomes varied drastically based on entry timing. Lookonchain identified early traders who generated massive returns, including one who secured a profit of more than $250,000 and another whose realized and unrealized gains exceeded $1 million. For traders arriving seconds or minutes later, results reversed sharply; one wallet that spent $200,000 to buy tokens faced an unrealized loss of about $197,000.
Bubblemaps also noted that roughly 60% of the token's largest holders were fresh wallets funded within the previous 10 days, with most funded on the day of the launch. While newly created addresses are common around token launches, the concentration added further scrutiny to the event.
The project features a fixed supply of 1 billion tokens. The tokenomics include 20% allocated across two community airdrops—with the first allocating 2% to wallets that lost money on TRUMP—and 30% allocated to founders, including Biden, locked for six months and vesting over two years. Another 30% is tied to predetermined political, crypto, and cultural outcomes to be burned or sent to charity, while 5% goes directly to charity.
