Hunter Biden’s LAPTOP Token Plunges 98% as Project Points to Sniper Bots

The team behind Hunter Biden’s LAPTOP memecoin attributed its sharp collapse to sniper bots and insufficient liquidity, while early blockchain data from Nansen showed that some traders suffered losses worth six figures following the token’s launch.

LAPTOP reportedly debuted at 5 cents amid strong demand, but the project said its initial liquidity was not large enough to handle the sudden wave of automated trading activity.

Sniper bots are automated programs that monitor blockchain networks for new token launches and execute purchases within seconds, allowing them to enter positions before ordinary traders can react to rapidly changing prices. LAPTOP surged soon after launch before reversing just as quickly, eventually falling as much as 98% from its opening levels.

To strengthen liquidity, the team said it plans to release an additional 4 million LAPTOP tokens, representing 0.4% of the total supply, for liquidity incentives on Aerodrome pools beginning Sept. 10.

Early traders face major losses

Data provided to CoinDesk by blockchain analytics company Nansen offered an early view of the trading activity surrounding the launch.

During a 24-hour period, Nansen recorded 46,675 buy transactions compared with 16,038 sells. The activity involved 20,085 unique buyers and 8,714 unique sellers, with most buyers still holding their tokens rather than selling.

Nansen examined five wallets in greater detail. One had suffered an estimated total loss of about $199,000, consisting of approximately $171,000 in realized losses and another $27,900 in unrealized losses. A second wallet had purchased around 28,400 LAPTOP and had not sold, leaving it with an estimated loss of roughly $118,000.

Not every early participant lost money. One wallet that acquired approximately 49,700 LAPTOP was showing an unrealized profit of about $13,000 when Nansen captured the data.

Even after the steep decline, Nansen estimated LAPTOP’s market capitalization at around $720 million and its fully diluted valuation at roughly $2.1 billion.

Those valuations can make newly launched tokens appear larger than they are economically. When liquidity is limited, relatively small transactions can cause substantial changes in the token’s quoted price, making market-capitalization figures less representative of the amount of capital actually invested.

Project rejects insider-advantage claims

The LAPTOP team also rejected allegations that insiders received preferential access to the token.

According to the project, there was no presale and no allocations were provided to investors, influencers or key opinion leaders. It said the contract address, token distribution details, security audit and other disclosures were made public before trading began.

“Everyone had the same information, at the same time,” the project said in a Thursday blog post.

The team also reiterated that 30% of the supply allocated to founders is subject to a six-month lockup followed by a two-year vesting period.

Another 30% of the token supply is connected to a prediction mechanism. Depending on the outcomes of specified events, those tokens will either be burned or donated to charity.

LAPTOP turns political controversy into a token

The memecoin takes its name from the laptop Hunter Biden left at a Delaware repair shop in 2019. The device and its contents became a recurring focus of Republican attacks against his father, Joe Biden, during two presidential election cycles.

Hunter Biden confirmed the LAPTOP token on X on Monday, posting its ticker alongside a montage of news anchors discussing the project. The launch effectively transformed an object associated with a major political controversy in his public life into a tradable cryptocurrency.

The project faced strong opposition from crypto traders even before trading began, with several critics publicly urging Biden to cancel the launch.

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