Hunter Biden's laptop is the theme of the crypto market's latest meme coin

A political saga from the Joe Biden era is being revived as a meme coin. Remember Hunter Biden's laptop? The contents of the personal computer unearthed in a repair shop in Delaware generated an explosion of conspiracy theories that the president's son seems to be taking aim at with the launch of the crypto coin. Dubbed $LAPTOP, the crypto will start trading on September 9. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the token's launch. Biden joins a group of politicians and their associates who have launched their own tokens. Others include President Donald Trump, his wife Melania, and former New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Meme coins are jokes in crypto circles, their very existence predicated on making fun of digital assets. Most meme coins have seen brief rallies before collapsing, and political meme coins specifically have a checkered performance history since being issued. Trump's own meme coin, launched just before his inauguration at the end of January 2025, peaked around $75 before cratering. The coin hit a an all-time low of about $1.35 last month and was trading at $2.26 on Tuesday. Related video Tesla shareholders fear Elon Musk's focus on DOGE is tanking stock prices "The world probably doesn't need another political meme coin, especially given what happened with $TRUMP," analyst and founder of The Coin Bureau, Nic Puckrin, told Business Insider. "Even if there's a lot of demand at launch, that doesn't make it a sustainable investment." Biden on Monday posted the name of the coin and the date of September 9 in a post on X, alongside a supercut of conservative commentators, politicians, and media figures talking about the laptop story. The $LAPTOP coin will be launched as the current president's crypto dealings have been under scrutiny. Trump reported a windfall of more than $1 billion from his personal crypto investments, both from the meme coins tied to his family and other deals. Former NYC mayor Eric Adams promoted a meme coin in January 2025, which briefly surged only to plunge shortly after, sparking outrage from crypto proponents who accused him of orchestrating a "rug pull" on early backers of the token. The Journal's reporting on the details of the $LAPTOP coin's launch seem like it intended to further fan the rug-pull claims swirling around other political coins. Sources told the Journal that a portion of the tokens issues will go to the crypto wallets of people who lost money on Trump's meme coin. But Biden's crypto is also drawing scrutiny from market watchers ahead of its launch. Explore BI Games Take a smarter break in your day - and see how far you get. Play now Want more Business Insider in your news feed? Add BI in Google so our reporting is easier to find when you're searching for what matters. Add to Preferred Sources Alice Liu, head of research at CoinMarketCap, told Business Insider that while $LAPTOP is being presented as a meme coin, little is known about it and few details have been confirmed. "$TRUMP alone still accounts for roughly 80% of its own category's market cap," she noted. "$LAPTOP isn't entering an open lane; it's entering one already dominated by a single asset that has lost nearly all its own value." Others highlighted that, similar to any other meme token, $LAPTOP has no real-world utility behind it other than being linked to someone of note. "A small group may make money, but many buyers are left holding an asset with no underlying value," said Edwin Mata, CEO of tokenization platform Brickken. "These launches attract headlines, but they also divert capital and attention away from companies building serious blockchain infrastructure and real financial use cases." Hunter Biden did not respond to a request from Business Insider for comment.