Hunter Biden's Meme Coin Crashes After Debut — WSJ
By Vicky Ge HuangHunter Biden's meme coin $LAPTOP appears to have lost most of its value shortly after launching on the Coinbase Global-affiliated blockchain Base on Wednesday.The token plummeted more than 95% from its peak of $199.51 to roughly $1.70 as of early Wednesday afternoon, giving it a fully diluted valuation of $1.7 billion, according to CoinGecko data.Some analysts note that the token's initial pricing could be skewed because trading was limited to decentralized exchanges, without a listing on major centralized exchanges.According to people familiar with the project, the meme coin launched on a decentralized exchange at $0.05, with a roughly $50 million diluted valuation. Because it wasn't listed on a centralized exchange, there was no external benchmark price to keep it grounded. This also made the token vulnerable to sniper bots, or automated software that instantly detects new trading pools and buys up the cheapest tokens, artificially driving up the price before regular traders can react.Biden launched the meme coin to take aim at his family's nemesis, Donald Trump, The Wall Street Journal reported.President Trump's memecoin, $TRUMP, launched in January 2025 and surged to a peak of $73.43 before cratering. It traded at roughly $2.18 Wednesday, giving it a fully diluted valuation of about $2.2 billion.Eric Trump, President Trump's son, retweeted a post on $LAPTOP's price decline Wednesday morning, commenting: "Hunter should go back to painting..."This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).