Pump Fun and Kraken have deleted posts that promoted $LAPTOP, a Hunter Biden laptop-themed memecoin planned for launch on Base. On Monday, both crypto firms pushed the token ahead of its Wednesday debut and said it would be tradable on their platforms.
The rollout sparked immediate backlash from the crypto community, and Protos said that reaction likely led to the posts being taken down.
Influencers turn on the launch
A number of prominent crypto personalities publicly criticized the token. Ansem, whose real name is Zion Thomas, compared it with past celebrity-backed launches that had gone badly. Threadguy called the pre-announced token a “scam” that would dump on “my low cap gems.” Rasmr used even harsher language and compared the launch to 9/11.
Threadguy wrote: “The problem is everybody knowing about it pre launch completely ruins any chance of success. malicious or not.”
Market Bubble, the show hosted by Thomas and Faze Banks, also canceled a Thursday interview it had scheduled with Biden.
Some observers pushed back on that criticism and said the reaction was hypocritical, given that many of the same crypto influencers had backed celebrity tokens before, including Donald Trump’s. In a September 7, 2026 post, Wazz wrote: “Guy who promoted Iggy Azalea Coin, Davido Coin, Jason Derulo coin, Trippie Redd coin, Trump coin, but draws the moral line at Hunter Biden coin.”
Base figures try to distance themselves
$LAPTOP is launching on Base. After The Wall Street Journal reported on the token, Base creator Jesse Pollak and crypto investor Cobie both moved to address the blowback.
Pollak said Biden’s team had approached them, but that they chose “to be hands off” because of politics. Cobie, meanwhile, worked to knock down rumors that Base itself was behind the token launch.
The Wall Street Journal reported that 30% of the memecoin’s supply would go to Biden and other co-founders. Another 20% would be allocated to Biden’s Substack subscribers, subscribers on YouTube journalist Andrew Callahan’s mailing list, and traders who lost money on Trump’s memecoin.
The token was also reported to be tradable on Pump Fun at 8 a.m. EST and set to launch on September 9.
Channel 5 says it has no link to the coin
Channel 5, Callahan’s YouTube-based news outlet, said it had no connection to Hunter Biden’s coin and would never “advertise crypto.”
The outlet also said it had its subscriber list pulled back from Hunter’s team before any emails were sent. Even so, it faced criticism for handing over the mailing list in the first place.
The political history behind the laptop reference
Hunter Biden’s laptop became a center of political debate over whether his father had been involved in helping his Ukraine business interests. Three weeks before the 2020 US presidential election, the New York Post published a story claiming the laptop’s contents showed corruption.
Years later, however, a Republican inquiry found no wrongdoing by Joe Biden in relation to those Ukraine business dealings.
Protos also noted that Hunter Biden has said he is dealing with millions of dollars in debt and has struggled to cover legal costs tied to several criminal cases. In 2024, he pleaded guilty to tax charges and was found guilty of being an illegal drug user in possession of a gun. His father pardoned him before sentencing.