Hunter Biden is preparing to launch a one-billion-token meme coin called LAPTOP on Coinbase’s Base network on Sept. 9. The Wall Street Journal reported the plan on Sept. 7, and Hunter Biden later confirmed the date in a post on X. The token takes its name from the laptop controversy that became a major political issue during the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
According to the Journal, the founding team will receive 30% of the supply, locked for six months and gradually unlocked over two years. Another 20% will be distributed through two airdrop rounds. Eligibility is expected to include people who lost money trading President Donald Trump’s TRUMP meme coin, Hunter Biden’s Substack subscribers, friends, and people on a mailing list maintained by video journalist Andrew Callaghan.
Another 20% of LAPTOP is earmarked for charitable donations, liquidity, exchange partners, market makers and operational costs, including legal, accounting and compliance expenses. The remaining portion is tied to an unusual burn structure built around 30 predetermined events. Up to 30% of supply could be permanently destroyed if conditions occur within assigned time limits, including a Democratic victory in the 2028 U.S. presidential election, Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high, or LAPTOP’s fully diluted valuation overtaking TRUMP’s. Tokens linked to unmet conditions would be donated proportionally to charities instead of being burned.
TRUMP has become the clear competitive reference point for the new token. Trump’s meme coin launched shortly before he returned to the White House in January 2025, rallied sharply, then lost most of its value. Blockchain data from Nansen cited by crypto.news showed nearly 989,000 TRUMP wallets had accumulated a combined $3.81 billion in realized and unrealized losses through the end of June. Trump’s 2025 financial disclosure showed a $636 million payout connected to the meme coin and at least $1.4 billion in crypto-related income.
TRUMP staged another rally in August, moving from a record low of $1.37 to $3.60 before falling after team-linked wallets transferred $6.2 million worth of tokens to OKX. Nearly 988,905 wallets remained underwater by a combined $3.81 billion, while Trump-affiliated entities controlled 80% of the one-billion-token supply under a vesting schedule running through January 2028.
Political meme coins have previously shown sharp reactions to Trump-family launches. TRUMP lost roughly 55% within minutes after Melania Trump announced her MELANIA token in January 2025. By February 2026, TRUMP and MELANIA were down more than 90% from their peaks, and estimates placed retail losses across the Trump-branded tokens above $4 billion. Public Citizen estimated in August that investors across five Trump-linked products were at least $4.7 billion underwater, including about $3.2 billion attributed to TRUMP holders and at least $1 billion connected to World Liberty Financial’s WLFI token.
The launch also arrives amid regulatory and ethical scrutiny. Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal asked SEC Chairman Paul Atkins in August to investigate TRUMP, citing investor losses and Trump’s reported earnings. The SEC has previously taken the position that meme coins generally do not qualify as securities under existing federal securities laws.
Pre-launch, the Wall Street Journal report did not publish a contract address or allocation wallets. Base asset pages can display pre-existing tokens using the same LAPTOP name or ticker, so traders need to verify the official contract, founder allocation wallets, distribution rules and liquidity details before interacting with or buying any token using that ticker.
