Hunter Biden’s memecoin LAPTOP launched on Wednesday and lost 99% of its value within hours. The token peaked at $190.81 just 120 seconds after launching on the Base network, then fell 90% within 30 minutes. By the one-hour mark it traded near $4.77, and by afternoon it sat around $1.80.
The token’s airdrop was designed to compensate wallets that lost money on Trump’s meme coin. Instead, it created a new group of losers. One wallet spent about $200,000 on 919 tokens near $218, a position worth under $3,000 an hour later.
Winners and Losers
There were a few big winners. One wallet pulled $249,800 off Binance before launch, bought 9,124 tokens at roughly $27, and sold most of the position minutes later near $129 a token for about $1.18 million. That’s a $930,000 gain on a five-minute hold.
Hunter Biden’s Substack subscribers received airdrops worth over $400,000 at peak, and some of them cashed that out as well. The broader market barely noticed the launch. Majors and alts were largely unchanged in the hours after.
“Maybe the market reaction will spook any other celebrities or politicians’ children from launching their own coins,” wrote Tyler Warner in the Morning Minute newsletter. “We can hope…”
Markets Slide
Crypto majors fell 1-3%. BTC was down 1% at $77.8k; ETH fell 1% at $2,460; SOL dropped 3% at $101; HYPE lost 4% at $82.60; ZEC fell 2% at $1,220. Recent alt leaders like VVV and LIT fell 10%. Top movers included KAS (+9%), STABLE (+4%) and RAY (+2%).
Oil rose 2% to $97, while gold fell 1% to $4,420. Stock futures were mixed as oil continued its rise. The Dow was up 0.2% while the Nasdaq was down 0.4%.
Consensys is splitting into two companies. The existing company will rebrand as MetaMask under Joe Lubin, while a new Consensys takes Linea and the institutional infrastructure business by year end. Nasdaq invested $100 million in Kraken parent Payward at a $21 billion valuation, per Bloomberg.
Trezor said hackers breached its third-party email provider and sent a fake “Critical Security Alert” claiming an STM32 entropy flaw. Researchers reported BitBox users got the same message. Vlad Tenev said Robinhood doesn’t need AMC’s consent to issue stock tokens, describing them as debt securities backed 1:1 by shares held as collateral, carrying dividends but no voting rights.
Block applied to the OCC for a national trust charter to custody Bitcoin through Builders Bank & Trust. The Secret Service froze $52.8 million in USDT across 52 wallets tied to Telegram scam marketplace Xinbi Guarantee, which has processed at least $24 billion since 2022. DoubleZero added Kalshi’s election and politics order books to its low-latency data feed ahead of the November 3 midterms, with more than $133 million already wagered on House and Senate races.
Meme Coins and Protocols
Meme leaders were very red. DOGE fell 6%, SHIB dropped 5%, PEPE lost 7%, PENGU fell 6%, TRUMP dropped 10%, and SPX lost 6%. Robinhood chain leaders were also down as Pons fell 28% to $380 million. AI dropped 10% at $200 million; Cashcat fell 12% at $160 million. MOO (+70%), Orbio (+110%), astro (+85%) and Route (+80%) were the top movers.
Solana had a big volume day, with top movers led by Penis (+50x), Baton (70x), Ember (+135x) and Cate (+40%). Ansem fell 3% at $170 million. The Stonkfun ecosystem took a brief hit after Pump launched Custom Pairs but then rebounded. Stonk fell 12% at $170 million, ZCAT dropped 20% at $86 million, BTC rose 70% at $7 million, and Nearkat gained 85% at $5 million.
Pump.fun introduced “Custom pairs,” allowing new tokens to be paired with tokenized stocks, crypto majors and more. Pump.fun matched Hyperliquid in daily revenue with $1.8 million. Stonkfun completed its fourth $1 million+ revenue day with $1.35 million. Lighter’s open interest is up over 75% since its integration with Robinhood went live.
The Bitcoin ETFs saw $120 million in net outflows on Wednesday. The ETH ETFs saw $35 million in outflows.
NFT Market Flat
NFT leaders were mostly flat. Punks held even at 30 ETH, BAYC stayed at 6.8 ETH, and Pudgy remained at 3.7 ETH. Otherdeeds (+20%) and The 404 Machines (+12%) led the top movers.
| Token | Price | 24h Change |
|---|---|---|
| BTC | $77.8k | -1% |
| ETH | $2,460 | -1% |
| SOL | $101 | -3% |
| DOGE | — | -6% |
| TRUMP | — | -10% |
Key facts:
– LAPTOP peaked at $190.81, 120 seconds after launch
– LAPTOP fell 99% from its high within hours
– One wallet made $930,000 on a five-minute hold
– Bitcoin ETFs saw $120M in net outflows
– Oil rose 2% to $97
– Nasdaq invested $100M in Kraken parent at $21B valuation
– Secret Service froze $52.8M in USDT across 52 wallets
The LAPTOP crash didn’t move the broader market, but it may give other celebrities pause.
Whether that lasts is another question.
Source: decrypt.co
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