Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden, confirmed Monday that he is launching a cryptocurrency token called $LAPTOP on Wednesday, September 9.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the plan. Biden then posted the ticker and date on his verified X account with a video montage of news clips about the laptop he left at a Delaware computer repair shop in 2019.
What it is
$LAPTOP is a meme coin. That means it is a digital token whose price is driven mainly by attention, jokes, and speculation, not by a company, product, or cash flow. Meme coins can rise fast and fall just as fast. They are not the same as Bitcoin, and they are not a savings account.
The token is set to launch on Base, a blockchain network created by Coinbase. Coinbase has not said it endorses the project.
How the tokens are split, according to reports
People familiar with the project told the Journal the total supply is 1 billion tokens. Reports citing that reporting describe the planned split this way:
• About 30 percent to the founding team, including Biden. Those tokens are described as locked for six months, then released over about two years.
• About 20 percent for airdrops, in two rounds. Eligible groups named in reports include crypto wallets that lost money on President Donald Trump’s $TRUMP meme coin, subscribers to Biden’s Substack, and a mailing list associated with video journalist Andrew Callaghan.
• Additional tokens reserved for liquidity, operations, and a mechanism tied to future events. Some reports say tokens linked to certain outcomes could be burned or sent to charity. Named examples include a Democrat winning the 2028 presidential election, Bitcoin hitting a new high, or $LAPTOP’s value overtaking $TRUMP.
Those details come from secondary reporting of the Journal’s account. Official contract addresses and final rules typically appear only at launch.
The laptop, in brief
Biden left a laptop at a Wilmington, Delaware, repair shop in April 2019. The FBI later took possession of it. In October 2020, The New York Post published emails and other material said to come from the device. The episode became a major political fight during that year’s presidential campaign. Biden has said the contents reflected his addiction and has denied that they proved official corruption. His lawyers have also said some files were manipulated.
The token’s name is a direct reference to that controversy.
What happened after the announcement
Copycat tokens using the LAPTOP name appeared on other networks within minutes of the report. On-chain trackers later counted hundreds of lookalike tokens. Those are not the official launch described by Biden and the Journal. Anyone who buys a token before the official contract is published is buying something else.
Crypto traders’ early reaction was mixed to negative, according to CoinDesk. Some exchanges and people named in connection with airdrops publicly distanced themselves from promoting the project.
What this is not
This is not legal, tax, or investment advice. Meme coins can go to zero. Founder allocations, airdrop rules, and “burn” conditions can change. Past celebrity tokens, including $TRUMP, saw sharp early spikes followed by large losses for many buyers.
If you do not already use crypto wallets, exchanges, and blockchain networks, this launch is not a beginner product. Treat any unsolicited “official” link, airdrop claim, or lookalike ticker as high risk until the project publishes a verified contract.
