Author: Jose Antonio Lanz (Decrypt)

Translation: Deep Tide TechFlow

Deep Tide Introduction: Hunter Biden posted the ticker for LAPTOP coin on X on Monday, along with a 31-second Fox News video, just minutes after The Wall Street Journal reported on the launch of this Meme coin. LAPTOP is set to go live on Base on September 9. Unlike the excitement seen when previous celebrity coins launched, the response from the crypto community was quick and cold: mostly ridicule, with many calling him a hypocrite, especially since he had just criticized Trump for launching a coin as a "scam".

The source of the community's anger is that traders have already been burned by the Trump family and "celebrity Meme coins", with both Trump and Melania's coins losing over 90% of their market value since launching in 2025.

In the short term, political and celebrity tokens can always attract an initial wave of buyers; however, the second wave, which determines if it is "headline news" or a "joke," mostly ends in collapse. As Mark Cuban told Decrypt: every Meme coin is "a rug pull in the making," where the fun and risk lie in guessing when it will happen.

Hunter Biden's Entry: LAPTOP Coin Launches on September 9, the Community Laughs First

Hunter Biden officially took the first step into the crypto world on Monday: he posted the ticker LAPTOP on X, accompanied by a 31-second Fox News video featuring the laptop. This all happened just minutes after The Wall Street Journal's report on this Meme coin was released.

So, Hunter Biden has proven that his crypto project can attract the attention he wants. But when LAPTOP launches on September 9, will traders really come in to buy?

The response from the crypto community today was swift and far less courteous than past launches of other celebrity Meme coins.

Most replies were mocking, with some criticizing Biden as a hypocrite. One user wrote: "You just criticized Trump for running a scam, and now you’re doing the same." This sentiment was echoed in many quoted tweets.

Why the Anger is So High: Traders Burned by the Trump Family and Celebrity Coins

Trump and his wife Melania both launched Meme coins in 2025, soon after Trump won re-election. Since their launch, both tokens have lost over 90% of their market value.

Despite this, the anger and disappointment towards Biden in the crypto "trenches" likely stem from the fact that these traders have previously been severely burned by similar Meme coins, including those from the Trump family, as well as a long list of other celebrity Meme coins that launched before.

The Timing and "Sniping" Controversy: Announcing Two Days Early Gives the Edge to Bots

Some of the criticism today focused on the timing of LAPTOP’s launch. Some traders pointed out that announcing it two days early, along with the ticker already circulating outside, is equivalent to giving the initial advantage to bots and "snipers," those automated buyers ready to instantaneously gobble up tokens the moment they launch, leaving regular buyers behind.

Others interpreted the issuance of this coin as a microcosm of a larger battle. The Ethereum Layer 2 network Base and its competitor Solana lost Meme coin trading volume to Robinhood Chain in 2026, a network based on Arbitrum that just launched in July and now has daily fees surpassing the sum of both older chains.

One trader joked that this coin seems to be prepared for those who lost money on $TRUMP, which had surged to a $70 billion market cap in less than three days. Another wrote: “Base goes all in on a president-related Meme coin two years after the celebrity coin disaster. I can’t think of any other ecosystem that retains support from the entire network of builders but throws them all away for an empty zero-sum narrative.”

There are also traders who believe that LAPTOP's launch sounds like Base is chasing visibility rather than selecting projects based on value.

Exchanges and Platforms Compete to Support, Base's "Celebrity Coin" Anxiety

The cryptocurrency exchange Kraken had a post promoting the launch of LAPTOP that was widely circulated on Monday afternoon before disappearing, with screenshots spreading faster than any explanation. Crypto degens even praised Kraken for at least "hearing the community's voice" this time.

The company behind Meme coins, Pump.fun (which expanded from Solana to Base and other networks earlier this year), seriously promoted the token on its account, advertising a 0.1% transaction fee. This post remained up as of the time of publication.

Hunter's "Dark History": $17 Million Debt to Law Firm, Gun and Tax Convictions

Some of the doubts also pointed to Hunter Biden's own background, which is not short. He has openly written about his drug addiction; in 2024, he was convicted of three counts of felony gun possession and later pleaded guilty to nine counts of tax felonies, only weeks before being pardoned by his father, former President Joe Biden.

He also testified under oath that he owes his former law firm Winston & Strawn $17 million, which sued him for unpaid legal fees last year. In April of this year, his lawyer stated in a Washington court that Biden "lives abroad" and "is unable to pay." Traders took this detail as an answer to why it’s a Meme coin and why now.

His Own Words: Interested and Wants to Make Money

However, crypto traders don’t need to guess Hunter Biden's motives; he has already made them clear. In an interview a few weeks ago with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Biden told Tucker he plans to enter the crypto space for a simple reason: he is interested in the technology, and he "wants to make some money."

During the interview, Biden also directly mentioned his legal fees, so it’s not hard to connect the two matters. Hunter launching a Meme coin, like most people in the crypto world circling around tokens and tickers, is simply about earning as much money as quickly as possible.

Short-term Pumps, Long-term Declines: Two Waves of Meme Coins

That said, recent history shows that the answer to whether crypto traders will support Biden's Meme coin depends on which clock you are watching.

In the short term, coins almost always experience an initial pump: the Libra, supported by Argentine President Javier Milei, soared to a $4.5 billion valuation within hours after Milei's post; Hailey Welch's Hawk Tuah coin even surged to a $491 million market cap, only to quickly plummet over 90%.

Political and celebrity tokens can always attract the first wave of buyers, regardless of how unpopular the person behind the coin is online.

What determines if it becomes “headline news” or a “joke” is the second wave, and this wave is mostly bad news.

When the wallets of Meme coin developers control most of the supply of a single coin, things are bound to collapse; just ask Hailey Welch, who has not fully recovered from her own Meme coin disaster.

As investor Mark Cuban told Decrypt last year, every Meme coin is "a rug pull in the making," where the fun and risk lie in guessing when it will happen.