Hunter Biden’s LAPTOP token plummets 98% amid bot-driven crash, leaving traders with six-figure losses
— The LAPTOP memecoin dropped as much as 98% from its initial price, driven by sniper bots and thin liquidity that sparked a swift surge and subsequent collapse, according to the project’s team.
— Nansen data revealed that several traders incurred six-figure losses, with one wallet down roughly $199,000, while most purchasers held onto their tokens without selling.
— The team insisted that insiders did not get preferential treatment and announced plans to release 4 million extra tokens to boost liquidity on Aerodrome pools starting September 10.
The LAPTOP token team attributed the collapse to sniper bots and thin liquidity, noting that early on‑chain data indicated some traders were left with six-figure losses after the token fell as much as 98% from its opening level.
The project said LAPTOP debuted at five cents amid heavy demand, but its initial liquidity proved insufficient to absorb the surge of automated traders.
Sniper bots are algorithms that detect new token launches and execute purchases within seconds, outpacing ordinary users before prices stabilize; the token surged and then quickly reversed.
The team announced it will release an additional 4 million tokens — about 0.4% of the total supply — to incentivize liquidity on Aerodrome pools beginning September 10.
Early data shared with Decryptnews by blockchain analytics firm Nansen provides the first look at who was affected. Nansen recorded 46,675 buy transactions versus 16,038 sells in 24 hours, involving 20,085 unique buyers and 8,714 unique sellers, with most purchasers yet to sell.
Examining five wallets, Nansen found one holding roughly $199,000 in losses — $171,000 realized and $27,900 unrealized — while another that bought about 28,400 LAPTOP without selling was down about $118,000.
A single address that purchased roughly 49,700 LAPTOP showed about $13,000 in unrealized profit at the snapshot.
Nansen estimated LAPTOP’s market cap at roughly $720 million and a fully diluted valuation of $2.1 billion even after the decline, noting that small trades in thin liquidity can dramatically distort quoted prices.
Consequently, the LAPTOP team pushed back against insider‑advantage claims, stating there was no presale and no allocations for investors, influencers, or key opinion leaders, and that the contract address, token allocation, security audit and other disclosures were published prior to trading.
«Everyone had the same information at the same time,» the project said in its Thursday blog post.
It reiterated that 30% of the allocation is locked for six months and vests over two years, while another 30% of supply is linked to a prediction mechanism that either burns tokens or sends them to charity based on the outcome of specified events.
LAPTOP takes its name from the laptop Hunter Biden left at a Delaware repair shop in 2019, whose contents became a focal point of Republican attacks on his father during two election cycles; Biden confirmed the token on X on Monday with its ticker and a montage of news anchors discussing it, converting a damaging object of his public life into a tradable asset.
The launch attracted hostility from crypto traders beforehand, with several publicly urging him to call it off.
Tokenized equities are leading inflows into real‑world assets as the market recovers; Binance’s bStocks reached roughly $118.5 million in two months, now ranking #2 among issuers and accounting for about 90% of on‑chain equity DEX volume.
Why this matters:
Tokenized equities are leading inflows into real‑world assets as the market recovers; Binance’s bStocks reached roughly $118.5 million in two months, now ranking #2 among issuers and representing about 90% of on‑chain equity DEX volume.