Hunter Biden’s LAPTOP memecoin plunged as much as 98% after its debut, with the project’s team attributing the dramatic reversal to sniper bots and insufficient liquidity. Early data from blockchain analytics firm Nansen showed that several traders were left with six-figure losses.
The token launched at 5 cents amid heavy buying interest, according to the project. However, the team said its starting liquidity was too limited to absorb the surge of automated trading that followed the launch.
Sniper bots are automated programs designed to identify newly launched tokens and purchase them within seconds, allowing them to get ahead of regular traders. LAPTOP initially jumped sharply before reversing almost immediately as selling pressure emerged.
The project said it will add 4 million more tokens, equivalent to 0.4% of the total supply, to support liquidity incentives on Aerodrome pools beginning Sept. 10.
Traders left with heavy losses
Nansen data supplied to CoinDesk showed 46,675 LAPTOP buy transactions compared with 16,038 sells over a 24-hour period. The activity came from 20,085 individual buyers and 8,714 sellers, with the majority of buyers continuing to hold their tokens.
Nansen reviewed five wallets to assess the impact of the collapse. One wallet had an estimated overall loss of approximately $199,000, including $171,000 in realized losses and another $27,900 in unrealized losses.
Another wallet purchased around 28,400 LAPTOP and had not sold any of its holdings, leaving it with an estimated unrealized loss of about $118,000.
Some traders, however, remained profitable. One wallet that acquired approximately 49,700 LAPTOP was showing an unrealized gain of around $13,000 when the data was recorded.
Despite the massive decline, Nansen estimated the token’s market capitalization at approximately $720 million and its fully diluted valuation at about $2.1 billion.
Such figures can be misleading for newly launched tokens with limited liquidity. Because relatively small trades can cause large price swings in thin markets, the resulting market-capitalization estimates may not accurately represent the amount of capital actually invested.
Team denies preferential access
The LAPTOP project also rejected claims that insiders had an advantage during the launch.
The team said there was no presale and that it did not reserve allocations for investors, influencers or key opinion leaders. It also said the contract address, token allocation details, security audit and other disclosures were released before trading started.
“Everyone had the same information, at the same time,” the project said in a Thursday blog post.
The team reiterated that the founders’ 30% allocation is locked for six months and will then vest over a two-year period.
Another 30% of the total supply is connected to a prediction mechanism. Depending on the results of specified events, the associated tokens will either be burned or donated to charity.
Political controversy behind LAPTOP
The memecoin takes its name from the laptop Hunter Biden left at a Delaware repair shop in 2019. The contents of the device subsequently became a major focus of Republican criticism of his father, Joe Biden, during two election cycles.
Hunter Biden confirmed the token on X on Monday, posting its ticker alongside a montage of television news anchors discussing the project. The launch turned an object closely associated with a political controversy surrounding his public life into a tradable digital asset.
The project had already faced significant opposition from crypto traders before its launch, with several critics publicly calling on Biden to abandon the plan.
