Hunter Biden has released a third-party accounting report on the launch of the $LAPTOP memecoin, saying his team did not sell into the market and blaming the token’s collapse on market makers that allegedly pulled liquidity.
Biden posted the explanation in a long thread from his official X account, @HunterBiden, on Oct. 7 Taipei time. The token, launched a month ago, drew criticism after its price collapsed within minutes in a move that many compared to a classic rug pull.
Biden publishes what he calls an independent accounting
In the thread, Biden wrote: 「A month ago we launched $LAPTOP. Within minutes, we had a chart that looked like every celebrity rug ever. Completely broken. I promised you a full independent accounting. Here it is.」
He said he had hired forensic firm Groom Lake to review every trade from the token’s opening session and used that report to support his account of what happened.
He says the token was meant as a satire of extraction-heavy crypto launches
Biden said the project was created in contrast to crypto ventures tied to Donald Trump that, in his words, were designed to "maximize extraction." He said $LAPTOP was intended to mock that style of launch, while also promising token lockups, MiCA disclosures, and support for charities he cares about.
Report says founder allocations never moved
Based on the findings he cited, Biden made several core claims.
- The founders did not dump tokens. He said all founder allocations remain in the same wallet address and have not moved since launch.
- Market Maker 1 committed very little capital to liquidity. According to the report, the firm had $500,000 in starting capital but placed only about $5,200, roughly 1%, into the liquidity pool.
- The pool was extremely thin at launch. It reportedly held fewer than 30,000 tokens, or just 0.003% of total supply.
Thin liquidity amplified the move
Biden said Groom Lake found that, under those conditions, a $6 buy had the same price impact as a $7,400 sell. He described the setup as one where pushing the price up was more than 1,000 times easier than exiting.
He said that imbalance helped send the token from $0.05 to about $317 in two minutes, a gain of more than 600,000%, before it dropped 98% within an hour.
He points to market makers as the main cause of the collapse
According to Biden’s account, the decisive moment came 84 seconds after the price peak, when selling pressure was already heavy. He alleged that "Market Maker 1" removed all cash from the pool, leaving no funds available to absorb sell orders and causing the price to break down rapidly.
He also said the biggest winners from the launch were the market makers. Biden claimed that "Market Maker 1" made about $686,000 from its decentralized exchange position, while DEX trades linked to "Market Maker 2" generated more than $2.1 million in net profit. He said the firms responsible for the failed launch should buy back the tokens and burn them.
Biden says he will stay in crypto and burn unclaimed airdrop tokens
Biden acknowledged that he bears ultimate responsibility because he hired the two large market makers. Even so, he said the failed launch would not push him out of crypto.
He said his tokens will remain locked for six months, followed by a two-year linear release schedule. As a next step, he plans to burn most of the unclaimed tokens from the first airdrop next week. That first airdrop accounted for 10% of total supply, according to the report.
Biden also said he is willing to appear on major podcasts to explain the episode. The reaction online, however, remained hostile. The original report noted that one of the popular replies mocked the explanation by saying it amounted to having "accidentally rugged everyone."