HUNTER BIDEN (AND HIS LAPTOP) ENTER THE CRYPTOSPHERE WITH NEW MEME COIN / THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Hunter Biden (and His Laptop) Enter the Cryptosphere With New Meme Coin

The personal computer that launched a thousand memes will debut this week as a digital token

By Vicky Ge Huang

Hunter Biden smiles, looking over his shoulder during a Medal of Freedom ceremony. / Hunter Biden Tom Brenner/Getty Images

The son of former President Joe Biden is launching a meme coin that takes aim at his family’s nemesis, Donald Trump. 

And he’s naming it for the most-infamous personal computer in American political history. 

Yes, Hunter Biden’s laptop will live on. 

At least on the blockchain.

Biden’s token will trade under the ticker, $LAPTOP, and launch Sept. 9 on Base, a digital ledger built by Coinbase Global, the largest U.S. crypto exchange, people familiar with the matter said. 

The token’s name is inspired by the sensation that followed the public’s discovery of Biden’s former computer in 2020. 

The contents of that device, from messages that documented his foreign business dealings to nude photos of the president’s son doing drugs, were eventually laid bare. 

And the leaks forged a cottage industry of investigations, conspiracies—and digital media content.   

Meme coins carry no intrinsic value, and most tumble in price within days or even hours after their launch. 

But some of the tokens have remained relevant thanks to their affiliations with a procession of celebrities, personalities and politicians who issued them to cash in on their fame. 

Coins tied to President Trump, first lady Melania Trump and former New York Mayor Eric Adams rocketed in value when they launched, only to crash within days.

In launching $LAPTOP, Hunter Biden will bring his weekslong media blitz to the cryptosphere. 

The 56-year-old has been seen and heard everywhere of late—podcasts, news shows and Substack essays—and at times alongside right-wing provocateurs such as Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes. 

He has opened up on his past troubles, present grievances, and at times promoted the virtues of crypto.  

In recent X posts, Biden called decentralized digital currencies the “inevitable future,” and weighed in on the dispute between the Trump family’s flagship crypto venture World Liberty Financial and Chinese-born entrepreneur Justin Sun.

$LAPTOP’s founders, including Biden, will hold 30% of the one billion tokens issued, the people said. 

Those founder tokens will be locked, meaning they can’t be sold, for six months and will vest fully in two years. 

Another 20% of the supply will be sent, in two batches, to crypto wallets belonging to people who lost money on $TRUMP, the president’s meme coin, subscribers to Hunter Biden’s Substack and a mailing list curated by his friend Andrew Callaghan, a video journalist. 

$TRUMP, launched in January 2025, surged to a peak market capitalization of nearly $15 billion before cratering. 

It traded at roughly $2 recently, giving it a market cap of around $600 million.

The founders agreed to destroy as much 30% of the $LAPTOP coins should a series of 30 events have predetermined outcomes within the specified time frame. 

Among those outcomes that would reduce the supply, and therefore potentially boost the value of the coins: a Democrat wins the 2028 presidential election; bitcoin reaches another all-time high; and $LAPTOP’s fully diluted valuation exceeds $TRUMP’s. 

If the events don’t achieve their desired outcomes, a proportionate amount of tokens will be donated to charity, people familiar with the matter said. 

The final 20% of the tokens will go to charity, liquidity purposes including distribution to exchange partners and market makers, as well as the foundation behind the token, which will cover accounting, legal, administrative and compliance costs. 

Meme coins began as a joke—a way for a burgeoning crypto industry to make light of their own willingness to buy anything digital no matter how questionable they appeared. 

Dogecoin, launched in 2013 as a playful nod to the viral meme featuring a Shiba Inu, is widely considered the first meme coin. 

In time, a subculture formed around the concept that any cultural moment or figure could merit their own token. 

Buyers of those coins almost always lose nearly all of their investments. 

Biden’s foray into the meme-coin space comes as investor sentiment toward digital assets and Trump’s crypto ventures have cooled.

Trump embraced digital assets on the campaign trail in 2024, vowing to make the U.S. the crypto capital of the world. 

When he returned to the White House, he installed industry-friendly regulators, backed landmark stablecoin legislation and pardoned key crypto figures like Binance founder Changpeng Zhao. 

The pro-crypto tailwinds lifted bitcoin above $126,000 last October before beginning a slide that continues nearly a year later. 

Meanwhile, Trump’s recent financial disclosures showed that the president had earned $1.4 billion from his meme coin and crypto deals alone last year.

Government watchdogs have raised concerns about conflicts of interest, arguing that the president and his family continue to profit from digital assets while shaping federal crypto policy. 

The issue has become a sticking point for the Clarity Act, which would establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for all digital assets. 

The bill has stalled amid disagreements over language that would prohibit government officials and their immediate families from profiting off digital assets. 

The White House has previously said that “neither the president nor his family has ever engaged—or will ever engage—in conflicts of interest.”