Hunter Biden announced on X that he will launch a new cryptocurrency called $LAPTOP, a meme coin that satirises the 2020 laptop scandal that drew intense media scrutiny and political debate.
$LAPTOP will debut on Coinbase’s Base blockchain on Wednesday, the same day President Donald Trump is holding a midterm convention in Dallas, Texas. The coin’s supply will total one billion units, with 20 percent earmarked for people who lost money on Trump’s $TRUMP coin, subscribers to Biden’s Substack newsletter, and recipients of a mailing list compiled by his friend Andrew Callaghan. The founders will hold a third of the supply, which they cannot sell for the first six months. Another 20 percent will go to charity or cover costs, while the remaining 30 percent will be burned if a series of 30 predetermined events occur, including a Democrat winning the 2028 election, Bitcoin reaching a new all‑time high, or $LAPTOP’s fully‑diluted value surpassing that of $TRUMP.
The laptop scandal began when emails and personal photos from a device left in a Delaware repair shop were published by the New York Post in October 2020, fueling conspiracy theories and social media jokes. Trump’s own foray into crypto has been contentious; he called the industry a “scam” in 2021 but later embraced it, signing stablecoin legislation and pardoning Binance founder Changpeng Zhao.
Biden, who has publicly spoken about his recovery from addiction and his views on decentralized digital currency, used X in June to affirm his belief that blockchain is the inevitable future. The launch of $LAPTOP reflects his willingness to engage in the sector while mocking the controversies surrounding Trump’s crypto ventures.
