Hunter Biden, son of former President Joe Biden, is gearing up to launch a meme coin named after his infamous laptop controversy, according to a report published on Monday.
‘Laptop’ Returns as Memecoin
The coin, dubbed LAPTOP, is slated to make its debut on Wednesday on Base, a Layer 2 blockchain developed by Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN), the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The coin’s name references the scandal that erupted after the discovery of Biden’s personal laptop in 2020. The laptop contained messages detailing his foreign business transactions and explicit photos, which were eventually made public, leading to a wave of investigations, conspiracy theories and digital media content.
The founders, including Hunter Biden, will retain 30% of the one billion tokens issued, the report mentioned. These founder tokens will be locked for six months, meaning they cannot be sold during this period, and will fully vest in two years.
Hunter Biden teased the memecoin in a short video on X that stitched together news clips, New York Post headlines and accusatory statements from President Donald Trump.
Hunter Biden didn’t immediately return Benzinga’s request for comment.
Memecoins launched by politically influential figures are nothing new. The Trumps themselves have released their own, including Official Trump (CRYPTO: TRUMP) and Official Melania (CRYPTO: MELANIA).
However, both of these have recorded significant drawdowns since their post-launch frenzy.
Trump made over $635 million in royalties collected from his official memecoin, according to official disclosures. Meanwhile, people who bought it at the peak lost 97% of their money.
Notably, the WSJ report mentioned that 20% of LAPTOP’s supply will be distributed, in two batches, to wallets of people who lost money on TRUMP.
Hunter Biden’s Crypto Pivot
Hunter Biden has shown growing interest in cryptocurrency, accepting Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) for his artwork and issuing blockchain-based certificates of authenticity.
He has referred to fiat currencies as "sham," while calling decentralized digital currency and blockchains the "inevitable future."
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photo Courtesy: Andrew Leyden on Shutterstock.com
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