Hunter Biden (헌터 바이든), the second son of former U.S. President Joe Biden, has signalled the launch of a memecoin called LAPTOP based on the laptop controversy surrounding him. LAPTOP will launch on the Base network built by Coinbase on Sept. 9.

On Sept. 7, local time, multiple foreign media outlets including the blockchain publication Cryptopolitan reported that the name LAPTOP was taken from the laptop controversy that surfaced ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Hunter Biden posted "$LAPTOP" and "September 9" on his X account, formerly Twitter, to announce the launch plan. The Wall Street Journal reported that he is directly involved in the project’s founding team.

Total supply is 1 billion tokens. Of that, 20 percent, or 200 million tokens, is allocated to two airdrops, and the recipients stand out. They include wallets that lost money investing in U.S. President Donald Trump's memecoin TRUMP, Hunter Biden’s Substack subscribers and subscribers to video journalist Andrew Callaghan (앤드루 캘러핸)’s mailing list.

There is a reason the airdrop targets those with losses on TRUMP investments. TechCrunch, citing analysis by Nansen, said 989,805 wallets that bought TRUMP were in the red as of late June, with total losses of $3.81 billion (about 5.1 trillion won). That is about two thirds of all TRUMP buyers. TRUMP rose to about $75 (about 100,000 won) after it launched in January 2025, three days before Trump’s inauguration, but later plunged.

The token allocation structure for LAPTOP was also disclosed. The founding team will hold 30 percent of total supply. Those tokens will be locked for six months after launch and then released gradually over two years. Another 20 percent is allocated to charitable donations, liquidity provision and costs related to exchange partners and market makers. Some will be used for accounting, legal and compliance costs at the token foundation.

The most unusual feature is a conditional mechanism that can permanently burn up to 30 percent of the supply. The tokens are burned if each of 30 preset events is met within a specified period. Conditions include bitcoin hitting a record high, LAPTOP’s fully diluted valuation exceeding TRUMP’s and a Democratic victory in the 2028 U.S. presidential election. Tokens not meeting the conditions will not be burned and will be donated to charities.

Political memecoins have previously seen prices swing sharply based on announcements by related figures. TRUMP was reported to have fallen about 55 percent shortly after Melania Trump (멜라니아 트럼프)’s memecoin MELANIA was unveiled in January 2025. LAPTOP could also see heightened volatility after launch depending on political events and market conditions.

Hunter Biden has publicly expressed support for cryptocurrencies in recent months. On his restored X account, he criticised fiat currencies and the banking sector and argued that "decentralized digital currency and blockchain are an unavoidable future." In an interview with Candace Owens, he said he "believes in memetokens" and that he would someday "build a community."

Controversy over President Trump’s virtual-asset businesses is also continuing. The civic group Public Citizen estimated in late August that investors lost at least $4.7 billion (about 6.3 trillion won) across five Trump-related virtual-asset ventures. It put TRUMP-related losses at $3.2 billion (about 4.3 trillion won) and losses related to World Liberty Financial at about $1 billion (about 1.35 trillion won). U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (엘리자베스 워런) and Richard Blumenthal (리처드 블루멘솔) sent a letter on Aug. 4 to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins (폴 앳킨스) urging an investigation into whether TRUMP "encouraged illegal fraud or unjust enrichment."

LAPTOP differs by making losses by existing political memecoin investors eligible for an airdrop and by including political events as token-burn conditions. Attention is on how the airdrop selection, the founder-team token unlock and the conditional burn structure will be received by the market after launch.

$LAPTOP September 9 pic.twitter.com/QokgWLNxgL