Hunter Biden addresses LAPTOP memecoin controversy, calls it Trump family 'troll' rather than scam
In an explanation of the memecoin's launch and subsequent controversy, Hunter Biden stated: "Trump's coin was max extraction, and I wanted to troll every grift like it."
The son of former US President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, has published a comprehensive financial breakdown of the memecoin project he launched last month, which was inspired by the widely-publicized controversy surrounding his laptop.
Through multiple posts shared on X this Wednesday, Biden presented blockchain records showing that the 300 million tokens held in wallets linked to the $LAPTOP memecoin founders "haven't moved since launch."
According to Biden, the price charts of the memecoin exhibited patterns that "looked like every celebrity rug ever" in the immediate aftermath of its Sept. 9 launch, with the primary beneficiaries being unidentified market makers — described as "two professional trading firms" contracted by the project — which withdrew their capital moments after the token reached its peak value of approximately $317.
Based on Biden's social media disclosures, the first market maker generated $686,000 in profits from liquidity positions established on decentralized exchanges, whereas the second "took in about $2.18 million more than it spent" via active trading activities.
Comparable information was made available in a "launch report" created by Groom Lake, a Delaware-based intelligence consultancy firm, and published on the official memecoin website.
The $LAPTOP report stated: "The money for sellers was pulled right after the peak." It further noted that "Eighty-four seconds after the price topped out, Market Maker 1 withdrew its money. The cash available to people trying to sell near the current price dropped from $16,157 to zero."
Biden went on to explain:
"Here's why I did this. Trump's coin was max extraction, and I wanted to troll every grift like it. So we were transparent, committed the team to a lock up and published a MiCA disclosure. And I hoped it could help some charities I care about too."
Though Biden indicated his original plan was to allocate 5% of the tokens toward charitable causes, he noted that his motivation to keep the project going was driven by a desire "just to piss off Don and Eric," a reference to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, the sons of current US President Donald Trump, along with "every [Key Opinion Leader] who called it a scam because we refused to pay them."
The memecoin derives its name from Biden's laptop computer, which became the focus of extensive media attention and debate prior to the 2020 US Presidential election, during which Trump competed against Biden's father. The laptop remains a frequent talking point among numerous right-wing commentators and became the central issue in two legal actions Biden initiated concerning privacy law violations.
Biden has maintained a consistently critical stance toward the Trump family's cryptocurrency enterprise World Liberty Financial, characterizing it as "corruption at a scale we've never seen" this past August. The president has also encountered backlash for introducing his own memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP), just before assuming office in January 2025, which has sparked its own allegations of rug pull schemes and corrupt practices.
Biden disclosed that the $LAPTOP founder memecoins will stay locked for a six-month period following launch and the project team plans to continue burning tokens from airdrops that remain unclaimed.
President to host another memecoin event amid controversy
Whether Biden's token was created to serve as a mirror reflecting rug pull schemes, as satire, or simply to antagonize the Trump family, it has the potential to draw additional attention to the president's cryptocurrency endeavors as he gets ready to address another gathering of his memecoin holders.
In the previous week, the organization responsible for the $TRUMP memecoin revealed that the president plans to make an appearance at his golf club located in Washington, DC, where he will join three unidentified speakers and the top 185 tokenholders for a dinner scheduled for Nov. 22.
Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, calculated that individuals who invested in the $TRUMP memecoin have suffered losses totaling $3.2 billion since the token's 2025 launch.