Updated

Updated · The New York Times · Sep 9

Hunter Biden's $LAPTOP Token Plunges 95% After Launch as Memecoin Spike Quickly Reverses

Updated

Updated · The New York Times · Sep 9

Hunter Biden's $LAPTOP Token Plunges 95% After Launch as Memecoin Spike Quickly Reverses

Q: How much did insiders quietly pocket in transaction fees while the $LAPTOP token plummeted 95 percent in mere hours?

There is no verified public figure yet for how much insiders “quietly pocketed” in fees from $LAPTOP’s collapse. What is documented is that the token generated substantial early trading activity while the price cratered. Reports cited roughly $6 million in trading volume by midday, and onchain reporting said about $19 million changed hands in the first hour across 314 pairs. That means fee income for whoever controlled launch infrastructure, liquidity, market-making or any built-in tax could have been meaningful. But the available reporting does not provide a confirmed breakdown showing how much went specifically to Hunter Biden, co-founders, market makers, exchanges, or other insiders. The clearest onchain evidence of insider-linked activity is separate from fees: Arkham reported that a project-linked multisig had been sent 100 million tokens before launch and had already offloaded about 42.5 million of them, while 15.5 million tokens were routed to market maker GSR and another 14.5 million to an unidentified wallet before trading began. Those transfers suggest insiders or affiliated parties were active around launch, but they do not establish a precise fee take. So the best factual answer is that the amount remains undisclosed. Based on the reported volume, fees likely ran into at least tens of thousands of dollars and possibly much more, depending on pool fees and any project-linked revenue share, but no reliable source has yet published an audited total.

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 9

$LAPTOP lost more than 95% of its value within hours Wednesday, collapsing to $1.34 by midafternoon after debuting at $37.26.
CoinMarketCap data showed the token briefly surged to $222.75 within minutes before the selloff erased nearly all of those gains.
Hunter Biden pitched the coin on X late Tuesday partly as a vehicle for charitable donations, but did not explain whether or how he might personally profit.
The crash underscored the speculative nature of memecoins, which have no intrinsic value and are driven largely by demand swings and trading momentum.
Critics quickly compared the token to the kind of political memecoin grift Biden had previously accused President Trump's coin of representing.