Hunter Biden has confirmed plans for a memecoin launch that fuses political memory with crypto speculation. The former first son says a token called LAPTOP, named after the infamous laptop that became a flashpoint in the 2020 election, will go live on Sept. 9. The confirmation, posted directly to his verified X account, effectively turned a years-old political scandal into the latest entry in the crowded world of meme coins — and within an hour, the Hunter Biden memecoin launch had already spawned more than a dozen copycat tokens racing to cash in on the attention.
Key takeaways
- Hunter Biden confirmed on Monday that the LAPTOP token launches Sept. 9 on Coinbase’s Base network, with a total supply of 1 billion tokens.
- Twenty percent of the supply is earmarked for airdrops, including wallets that lost money on the TRUMP token.
- The founding team controls 30% of supply, locked for six months and released over two years; up to 30% more could be burned based on triggering events.
- At least 14 copycat LAPTOP tokens appeared on other networks within an hour, trading a combined $6.9 million.
- Hunter Biden has not published official tokenomics, a website, or a contract address for the project.
Hunter Biden Confirms LAPTOP Memecoin Launch on Base
Hunter Biden confirmed on Monday that a token bearing the ticker $LAPTOP would launch on Sept. 9, sharing the date alongside a 31-second clip of a Fox News segment about the laptop that dominated headlines during the 2020 presidential race. The post landed on his verified X account at 10:55 a.m. ET and racked up 250,900 views within an hour, according to The Defiant.
The announcement and reaction
The timing was almost immediate: Biden’s post went up just four minutes after The Wall Street Journal published a report by reporter Vicky Ge Huang revealing the project, headlined “Hunter Biden (and His Laptop) Enter the Cryptosphere With New Meme Coin.” Biden is described as part of the founding team behind the token, which is set to deploy on Coinbase’s Base network — the same layer-2 chain that has become a popular home for meme coin activity tied to political and cultural figures.
Tokenomics: Airdrops, Locked Supply, and Burn Events
LAPTOP’s total supply sits at 1 billion tokens, and the distribution plan leans heavily on political signaling rather than typical crypto incentives. Twenty percent of that supply is reserved for airdrops across two rounds — and notably, some of those tokens are set to go to wallets that lost money holding TRUMP, the memecoin launched under President Trump’s name.
Where the tokens go
According to the Journal’s account of the tokenomics, eligibility for the airdrop extends beyond TRUMP losers. Hunter Video journalist Andrew Callaghan‘s mailing list and Biden’s Substack subscriber base both meet the criteria. The founding team, meanwhile, holds 30% of the supply, locked for six months after launch and then released gradually over the following two years. Another 20% is set aside to cover liquidity, exchange listings, and legal costs, according to the Journal’s account of the tokenomics, with up to 30% of supply tied to a burn system built around predetermined events including bitcoin setting a new all-time high and LAPTOP’s fully diluted valuation surpassing TRUMP’s market value.
Copycat LAPTOP Tokens Flood Multiple Chains
Speculators didn’t wait for the official Sept. 9 date. The first imitation At 14:50 UTC, a token called LAPTOP made its debut on Robinhood Chain — approximately one minute ahead of when the Journal’s markets account shared its post its story. Over the next 53 minutes, 22 more trading pools followed across Robinhood Chain, Solana, TON, and BNB Chain, covering at least 14 distinct copycat tokens, according to Dex Screener data cited by The Defiant.
None of those tokens launched on Base, and none is scheduled for Sept. 9 — a detail that matters because it means every one of them is, by definition, unrelated to the actual project. Collectively, they traded $6.9 million in under an hour. The largest, a Robinhood Chain token, carried a $535,206 fully diluted valuation and drew $5.43 million in volume across nearly 32,000 trades in a single pool paired against SGOV, the tokenized short-dated Treasury ETF — a pairing pattern The Defiant says has become common on that chain since July. Separately, a Solana token called “Hunter Biden’s Laptop,” deployed back in January 2024, jumped 411% to a $191,541 market cap on $932,561 of volume, riding the wave of attention without any connection to the real launch.
This scramble illustrates why the Hunter Biden memecoin launch drew instant market reaction even before the genuine token went live: in a space where tickers can be copied in seconds, speculative traders often chase the headline first and sort out authenticity later. It also raises a practical wrinkle — a token trading as LAPTOP has reportedly Operating on Base since June 27, it experienced a 54% surge on Monday, reaching a $51,908 market valuation cap, meaning it remains unclear whether the September launch will share that exact ticker or contract address.
TRUMP Token’s Collapse Puts Airdrop in Context
The decision to funnel part of the LAPTOP token airdrop toward TRUMP holders only makes sense against the backdrop of that token’s performance. TRUMP is priced at $2.25, reflecting a 6.3% decline in the past 24 hours and 5% over seven days, with a market cap of $613.4 million based on 273.1 million tokens in circulation according to CoinGecko. That’s roughly 97% below its all-time high of $73.43, hit on Jan. 19, 2025, just two days after the token’s launch. Its low came far more recently, at $1.37 on Aug. 13 this year.
Why this matters: by targeting TRUMP’s underwater holders directly, LAPTOP’s airdrop design turns a large pool of disillusioned retail traders into a built-in audience — a strategy that ties the new token’s fate to the political meme coin market Trump himself helped create.
No Contract, No Website: Transparency Concerns Linger
Despite the detailed tokenomics reported by the Journal, Hunter Biden has not published any official breakdown himself. His X post carries no contract address, no website, and no confirmed launch venue beyond the date. His Substack, where he has written about the laptop saga since July, has no post addressing the token, and his personal art site lists bitcoin as a payment option but makes no mention of LAPTOP.
That gap between reported detail and official confirmation leaves room for exactly the kind of confusion already playing out across Robinhood Chain, Solana, TON, and BNB Chain, where over a dozen unrelated tokens are trading on the LAPTOP name. For a project explicitly designed around political symbolism, the absence of a verified contract address is more than a technical footnote — it’s the difference between a legitimate launch and a market flooded with lookalikes.
Context from the broader ecosystem underscores the stakes: Base currently holds $5.67 billion in total value locked and settled $567.2 million in daily DEX volume, according to DefiLlama, while Robinhood Chain — home to every copycat token with meaningful volume — holds $908.7 million in TVL on $1.61 billion of daily DEX trading. Whichever network ultimately hosts the real LAPTOP token, it will be entering markets already primed for speculation.
FAQ
When will the LAPTOP memecoin launch?
Hunter Biden confirmed that the LAPTOP memecoin will launch on Sept. 9.
On which network will the LAPTOP token deploy?
The LAPTOP token will deploy on Coinbase’s Base network.
What is the total supply and tokenomics for LAPTOP?
The LAPTOP token has a total supply of 1 billion tokens, with 30% held by the founding team locked for six months, 20% reserved for airdrops, and up to 30% planned for burns triggered by specific events.
Are there any concerns about token transparency?
Hunter Biden has not published official tokenomics, a website, or a contract address for LAPTOP as of the report, leaving key launch details unconfirmed.
Article produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the editorial team.
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