The creators of Hunter Biden’s LAPTOP token attributed the memecoin’s dramatic crash to sniper bots and limited liquidity, while early blockchain analytics revealed that several participants experienced six-figure losses following a 98% plunge from its opening values.
According to the project announcement, LAPTOP debuted at 5 cents amid intense demand, but its baseline liquidity proved insufficient to manage the influx of automated trading volume.
Sniper bots are automated tools programmed to identify newly issued tokens and purchase them within fractions of a second, beating standard market participants before valuations readjust. Consequently, the cryptocurrency experienced an immediate vertical spike followed by an equally swift correction.
The developers announced plans to distribute an additional 4 million tokens, representing 0.4% of the overall supply, to boost liquidity across Aerodrome pools starting September 10.
Initial statistics provided to CoinDesk by blockchain intelligence platform Nansen offer a preliminary look at those affected. Nansen recorded 46,675 purchase orders against 16,038 sales over a 24-hour period, originating from 20,085 unique buyers and 8,714 unique sellers. The majority of individuals who acquired the asset have retained their holdings.
Read More: Hunter Biden’s new LAPTOP token lost 98% of its value in under an hour after $1.6 billion debut
Among five specific wallets analyzed by Nansen, one portfolio faced a cumulative deficit of approximately $199,000, comprising $171,000 in realized losses and $27,900 in unrealized losses. Another address that accumulated roughly 28,400 LAPTOP tokens without selling suffered a markdown near $118,000.
Conversely, a single address that acquired about 49,700 LAPTOP tokens held roughly $13,000 in unrealized gains at the time of the data capture.
Nansen calculated LAPTOP’s market capitalization at roughly $720 million alongside a fully diluted valuation of $2.1 billion, even subsequent to the steep drawdown. Such metrics tend to inflate newly introduced tokens because minor transactions within sparse liquidity pools drastically skew the quoted market price.
In response, the LAPTOP development team dismissed accusations that insiders held an unfair advantage, emphasizing the absence of any private presale or allocations reserved for investors, social media influencers, or key opinion leaders. Furthermore, the smart contract address, token distribution breakdown, security evaluation, and associated disclosures were all made public prior to the commencement of trading.
"Every participant accessed identical information simultaneously," the project asserted via a Thursday blog update.
The creators reaffirmed that the founders’ 30% allocation remains locked for six months and vests gradually over a two-year timeline. An additional 30% supply portion is tied to a prediction mechanism, wherein tokens are either permanently burned or donated to charity depending on the resolution of designated real-world outcomes.
LAPTOP derives its name from the computer left behind by Hunter Biden at a Delaware repair establishment back in 2019, the contents of which became a central element in Republican political criticisms throughout two separate presidential election cycles. Biden formally acknowledged the cryptocurrency token on X on Monday using the official ticker alongside a compilation of news broadcasts discussing the phenomenon—effectively converting a controversial relic of his public profile into a tradable digital asset.
The token rollout provoked significant resistance from digital asset traders prior to its release, with numerous individuals openly urging him to cancel the initiative.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/09/10/hunter-biden-s-laptop-blames-bots-after-98-crash-as-traders-rack-up-six-figure-losses.
