Hunter Biden’s laptop-linked meme coin soars, then falls after market debut

Hunter Biden’s meme coin soared in value Wednesday before its price plummeted hours after the launch.

The $LAPTOP coin quickly surged from $37 to around $222 within its first hour. But the cryptocurrency is trading around $1.36 just after 3 p.m. EDT, according to Coinmarketcap.com , a database tracking cryptocurrency prices.

The coin dropped around 95 percent in value since its launch.

The behavior is in line with the typical lifespan of meme coins, which do not carry any intrinsic value but often surge in price because of social media hype around their launch.

Other political figures have launched coins — including President Trump and first lady Melania Trump’s meme coins, which similarly plummeted in value after their launches.

“But why would I ever want to support a meme coin? Why something that has been so misused by grifters? I understand the cynicism,” Biden wrote on social media the day before the coin’s launch.

“Trump has broken trust in everything he’s ever touched. And his token was no exception,” he added.

The coin was inspired by political controversy that has swarmed Biden — the former president’s younger son — since 2020, when the New York Post reported Biden dropped off his personal laptop containing incriminating information about him and his father at a computer store.

It fueled what would later become years of scrutiny from the GOP over Biden’s business ventures and personal life.

It was expected 1 billion tokens of $LAPTOP would be issued to its founders along with crypto wallet owners who lost money on Trump’s meme coin, subscribers to Biden’s Substack and people on a mailing list curated by a friend of Biden’s, Andrew Callaghan, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal .

Callaghan’s company posted a statement clarifying that Callaghan has “nothing to do with” $LAPTOP and that Biden was simply using a mailing list the company provided to “expand his audience.”

“As we have told our followers numerous times, we do not believe crypto is a legitimate investment,” the statement said.