Hunter Biden-themed meme coin LAPTOP crashed 99.2% within hours of launch on Base, from $199.51 to near $1.61, amid counterfeit competition and scam flags.
Ecosystem ·
The LAPTOP meme coin, launched on the Base network and bearing Hunter Biden's name, crashed 99.2% within hours of trading, falling from an intraday high of $199.51 to near $1.61. The token briefly reached a $560 million market cap on its first day despite roughly $5.2 million in 24-hour volume. The coin was created in reference to the laptop controversy from October 2020 and included an airdrop allocation—one-fifth of the total supply—directed to wallets that suffered losses on Donald Trump's TRUMP coin.
The collapse unfolded amid multiple headwinds. More than a dozen counterfeit LAPTOP tokens emerged across Solana, BNB Chain, and TON within roughly an hour of public awareness, trading around $6.9 million combined. Analytics firm Lookonchain flagged a wallet that withdrew $250,000 to a centralized exchange before launch and spent $200,000 buying LAPTOP near its peak, leaving that position worth approximately $3,000 after the decline. Crypto investigator Coffeezilla publicly advised against purchasing the token before trading began.
The token's tokenomics included only 35% of supply unlocked at launch, with the remainder vesting over 36 months. Whether the crash reflected fundamental concerns about the project itself, the counterfeit competition, or broader skepticism around Biden-themed crypto remains unclear. The Base network itself has historically drawn a high volume of scam tokens since its 2023 launch.