Crypto World
Hunter Biden Laptop Row Spurs Memecoin Boom, Market Traders React
Hunter Biden’s newly launched “LAPTOP” memecoin started trading on Wednesday with sharp losses, dropping 86.5% within the first 30 minutes. The token—issued on Ethereum layer-2 network Base—was trading at $26.88 at 12:30 pm UTC after opening at $199.50, according to CoinGecko, with the rollout accompanied by more than $2.5 million in early trading volume.
In response to backlash, Biden posted on X that the symbol used in an earlier attempt to “end” him had become one of “resilience, redemption and recovery.” He also urged skepticism toward memecoins and described President Donald Trump’s token as a “grift,” warning buyers not to expect him—or anyone else—to make LAPTOP more valuable.
Key takeaways
- LAPTOP’s early price action was extremely volatile, falling 86.5% in its first 30 minutes after opening at $199.50.
- The token is deployed on Base and, per CoinGecko, drew over $2.5 million in trading volume during the initial window.
- Project disclosures describe LAPTOP as a digital collectible with no utility, voting rights, yield, or profit-sharing.
- Tokenomics allocate 2% of the total supply to wallets that lost money on Trump-related tokens, with additional allocations tied to subscribers and future foundation discretion.
- Base founder Jesse Pollak said Base made a “conscious decision” not to assist with the token’s design or promotion.
Launch chaos and a direct response to critics
The LAPTOP memecoin went live after Biden teased the token on X on Monday with a post featuring the ticker and a montage of media coverage related to the “laptop narrative.” The launch attracted immediate criticism from prominent online commentators, including digital investigator Stephen Findeisen (known as Coffeezilla), who called LAPTOP a “shitcoin” and urged people not to buy.
Despite the sharp selloff, the token quickly became a focal point in political crypto culture. Biden framed the launch as reclaiming a story connected to a MacBook reportedly left at a Delaware repair shop in 2019, with later allegations tied to emails and files published before the 2020 US presidential election. Trump allies used that material in attacks against Hunter Biden and his father, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden.
On Wednesday, Biden’s follow-up message addressed the backlash head-on. He acknowledged widespread cynicism about memecoins, characterized Trump’s crypto efforts as a “grift,” and said buyers should not assume he or anyone else can influence LAPTOP’s value upward.
What the disclosures say about utility—and what they don’t
Project documentation for LAPTOP, hosted as a disclosures PDF, presents the token as a digital collectible with no promised functionality. According to the disclosures, holders receive no utility and do not receive voting rights, yield, or profit-sharing. The token also has a fixed supply of 1 billion, with 350 million tokens circulating at launch.
These terms matter for traders because they clarify that the token’s economic rationale is not tied to revenue generation, staking incentives, or governance mechanics. In practice, memecoins typically rely on attention and liquidity rather than underlying product utility—something the disclosures explicitly align with.
Token allocation, “TRUMP-loss” airdrops, and future governance by discretion
The disclosures allocate 300 million tokens (30% of the total supply) to founders, including Biden. Those tokens are locked for six months and then vested monthly over the following 24 months. Another 30% of the supply is reserved for “political, cultural and crypto predictions,” with tokens burned if specified outcomes occur and released to charity if they do not.
A key point for supporters and skeptics alike is the project’s airdrop plan. The disclosures outline an initial airdrop representing 10% of the total supply. Within that initial allocation, 2% is reserved for wallets that lost money on TRUMP token-related activity, while 8% is earmarked for eligible subscribers to Biden’s “Where’s Hunter” Substack newsletter.
In addition, the disclosures describe a separate 10% future airdrop to be distributed at the foundation’s discretion. Combined, the disclosures suggest that 20% of the total supply is dedicated to airdrops, but the portion specifically linked to “TRUMP-loss” wallets is capped at 2%.
This structure creates an important asymmetry: while the narrative emphasizes reimbursement for those who lost money on TRUMP-related tokens, the explicit cap limits the scale of that outcome. Meanwhile, a meaningful portion remains subject to later discretion, which investors may want to monitor closely—especially if the project’s later criteria become contentious.
Base’s stance and the question of platform involvement
Even with the project deployed on Base, the network’s relationship to the token rollout appears intentionally limited. Base founder Jesse Pollak stated on X that the project contacted his team, but that Base made a “conscious decision” not to help with the token’s design or promotion.
That distinction may influence how readers interpret the launch: while Base hosts the token’s infrastructure, Pollak’s comments suggest it did not provide endorsement or development support. For participants, this is a reminder that token deployments can happen on a chain without the platform taking responsibility for the market outcomes or the promotional strategy surrounding the asset.
Cointelegraph reported that Biden did not respond to its query before publication.
As LAPTOP continues to trade, the next variables readers should watch are straightforward: how liquidity evolves after the initial dump, whether subsequent airdrop criteria and distributions follow the disclosures as written, and how the market reacts to the project’s founder-locked and vested supply schedule.
The SEC’s new proposal to overhaul transfer-agent rules could eliminate duplicate offchain shareholder records, reducing reconciliation costs and legal uncertainty for tokenized securities.
Pay close attention to a spot that appears suddenly; changes in size, shape, or color; becomes raised; or starts itching, bleeding, crusting, or refusing to heal. Dufner also recommends using the “ugly duckling” rule: If one spot simply looks different from all of its neighbors, it deserves professional attention.
“If your eye keeps being drawn to a spot because something about it seems different or unfamiliar, it’s worth having it examined,” Ilyas says. Dermatologists can inspect it with a dermatoscope, which reveals patterns and features that aren’t visible to the naked eye. If necessary, they can biopsy it.
How to fade age spots at home
Once a dermatologist has confirmed you’re dealing with harmless age spots, you can try fading them at home. Just prepare to be patient: Topical treatments are “a slow game—think months, not days,” Dufner says.
Prescription retinoids and azelaic acid are among the strongest topical options, she says. Over-the-counter products containing vitamin C, niacinamide, kojic acid, arbutin, glycolic acid, tranexamic acid, or thiamidol may also gradually lighten the spots. Hydroquinone can be effective, but it’s best used under a dermatologist’s supervision; prolonged overuse can cause a difficult-to-treat blue-black discoloration called exogenous ochronosis.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has backed the CLARITY Act once again ahead of its September 15 Senate vote.
He argued that the bill could give US crypto markets a clearer framework and help bring institutional capital and tokenized assets into the country.
Armstrong Lays Out His Case for a Yes Vote
Speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia on September 10, Armstrong described the CLARITY Act as “ready to get a yes vote” and told viewers that people he had spoken with in the Senate were on board.
“Law enforcement groups are now on board. Many banks are on board. The crypto companies are on board,” he said, while also pointing to hundreds of pages of input from both Republicans and Democrats.
The Coinbase chief also noted that his company had previously raised concerns about the bill but now believes the issues it considered non-negotiable changes have been sorted.
“All of those must-have issues that we raised our hands on last time have now been resolved,” he said.
As CryptoPotato reported in August, Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture before the lawmakers went on recess, setting September 15 as the date for the procedural vote. The measure needs 60 votes, meaning Republicans cannot pass it without support from at least seven Democrats or independents.
The political negotiations also include ethics provisions covering digital-asset holdings and projects linked to elected officials, including President Donald Trump.
Armstrong characterized the White House proposal as containing “very strong” ethics provisions, while Democrats have sought additional measures, including divestiture. He added that the discussions appeared to be close to a solution, calling the issue one of the last pieces to fall into place.
The crypto executive also drew a link between regulatory clarity and institutional adoption. Pointing to the GENIUS Act, he noted that more than 150 large companies integrated stablecoins within three months of its passage.
In his view, CLARITY could act as a regulatory “checkbox” for institutional investors and help bring tokenized equities and perpetual contracts to the US. According to Armstrong, even if the bill doesn’t pass, the alternative is already taking shape through the SEC and CFTC.
Last month, he predicted that clarity would arrive through either congressional action or agency rules, after CFTC Chairman Michael Selig had earlier outlined how the agency could use its existing authority to establish a crypto trading framework if Congress stayed deadlocked. Armstrong therefore framed September 15 as a decision point rather than the only route to new rules.
Bitcoin to $400,000 by 2030
He also connected the regulatory debate to broader financial conditions, arguing that excessive government spending can push investors toward Bitcoin “almost like gold.” Furthermore, he pointed to regulated stablecoins as structural buyers of US government debt, creating demand for Treasury bills and potentially helping lower rates.
On Bitcoin itself, Armstrong maintained that $400,000 by 2030 remains a reasonable target. He believes the cryptocurrency’s one-year downturn may have already reached its bottom, noting that the next halving is about a year and a half away and that previous market run-ups have tended to come right before those events.
“I think the next year or two is going to be good for Bitcoin,” he stated.
The post Coinbase CEO Backs CLARITY Act to Secure ‘Yes’ Vote on September 15 appeared first on CryptoPotato.
So-called digital arrest scams use false claims of authority to pressure victims virtually into making rapid digital payments, including cryptocurrency transactions, writes Moody’s Rich Graham.
Crypto World
Nasdaq, Boerse Stuttgart, others ask EU to remove or increase cap in tokenization trial
The coalition warned that the current limit is too low, noting some existing European projects already exceed it.
When Dominic Lopes—an aesthetics professor at the University of British Columbia—first read about the Hugging Face incident, he responded not with panic, but wonder. For one, he has become more skeptical that individuality requires embodiment. And interesting art, he says, requires sociality. “So when I saw this, I thought, ‘Oh, well, there’s another box checked off,’” he says. Now, what we saw was rudimentary and opportunistic—not yet “true sociality,” he says. “But it’s coming.”
Soon, any human community will be able to bring into existence a machine counterpart. Picture cultures of AI lawyers, consultants, terrorist cells—working together, what monuments might 10,000 agents create in honor of some beloved K-pop star? And machine communities may well arise of their own accord, organizing around ideas hard to predict.
We make art for all sorts of reasons: to express ourselves, exchange meaning, impress one another. We tell stories—like The Odyssey—to encode and share sets of cultural values. Though the mediums may differ, agents in machine cultures are poised to do the same. Being alive may not be necessary for self-expression.
The UK House of Lords backed an amendment requiring the government to develop a digital asset strategy, in a 194–138 vote on Wednesday, despite the Labour government’s opposition to the measure.
The amendment was added to the Financial Services and Markets Bill during its Report Stage on Wednesday. The bill is progressing through Parliament and would make broader changes to the UK’s financial services regulatory framework.
Amendment 88, introduced by Conservative peer Baroness Neville-Rolfe, would require the Treasury to prepare, publish and consult on a digital asset strategy within 12 months of the Financial Services and Markets Bill becoming law.
The strategy would cover cryptoassets, stablecoins and tokenized securities, while addressing issues including innovation, consumer protection and firms’ access to banking, payment and settlement services.
The vote follows months of debate over the UK’s approach to digital assets. During a July debate, Treasury’s Minister for Investment, Lord Stockwood, pushed back on calls for a statutory framework, saying the government believed it already had a digital asset strategy and was executing it.
The ruling Labour party opposed the amendment because they believed it did not adequately address the rapid development of digital assets and the need for a cohesive regulatory framework.
The UK Cryptoasset Business Council, which said it worked with lawmakers on the amendment, welcomed the vote on Thursday, highlighting Lord Chris Holmes’ question of whether the UK is “simply regulating digital assets” or “building a digital assets economy.”
The bill must still return to the House of Commons, where lawmakers can accept, amend or reject the Lords’ changes.
Almost every large crypto token fell through the overnight sessions and into Thursday's U.S. open, as an oil shock drove long-dated Treasury yields to multi-year highs and traders raised the odds of a Federal Reserve rate increase next week to 64%. Traders put a quarter-point September increase at… Read the full story at The Defiant
“We know that voters are going to turn to chatbots more and more,” said Valeria de la Fuente, a digital research analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue who recently co-authored a report on election-related misinformation from chatbots. “So the quality of the responses that we found is concerning.”
Google’s new election policy is a less cautious stance than the one the company took in 2022 and 2024 when it blocked Gemini from answering certain election-related questions, pushing users to seek answers from Google search instead.
“People come to Google to stay informed during election season—like when finding their polling site, watching candidate debates, or tracking results on election night,” the company said in Wednesday’s blog post. “We take the responsibility to deliver high quality, trustworthy information seriously.”
Other tech companies have taken similar approaches. Both OpenAI and Anthropic said their chatbots would direct users to voting information from the nonprofit Democracy Works. OpenAI also plans to provide live vote counts from The Associated Press, and monitor its systems for signs of political bias. Meta spokesman Corey Chambliss said when MetaAI users ask about voting and participating in elections, the service will give them local information or direct them to government sources.
OpenAI is taking aim at some of Wall Street’s most labor-intensive tasks with a new version of ChatGPT designed to research companies, analyze financial data and generate the presentations that investment bankers rely on.
The product unveiled Thursday, called ChatGPT for Financial Services, is a tailored version of its enterprise product, ChatGPT Work, that was made with “design partners” Morgan Stanley and Evercore, according to OpenAI’s Vice President of Product, Nick Turley. It uses the AI company’s latest and most advanced model, GPT-6 Astra.
The rollout puts OpenAI deeper into territory traditionally occupied by Wall Street’s entry-level bankers, the recent college graduates called analysts and associates that the industry has employed for decades to research deals and create pitchbooks. It also showcases the company’s continued push into enterprise offerings as it gears up for what is widely expected to be a blockbuster IPO.
“We’re effectively teaching ChatGPT to research like an analyst and back up its conclusions like an analyst as well,” Turley said during a briefing announcing the new product.
OpenAI has spent much of the last year racing to win over business customers in the fiercely competitive enterprise market, where it’s working to fend off rivals including Anthropic and Google. Anthropic announced its own tailored solution for Wall Street, Claude for Financial Services, last year.
Sarah Friar, OpenAI’s finance chief, told investors in August that the company’s enterprise business accounted for more revenue than its consumer business, which took off following the launch of ChatGPT in 2022.
Turley told reporters during the briefing OpenAI plans to release tailored solutions for “a number of sectors” beyond financial services.
In a live demonstration of the new offering, Turley showed the platform analyzing a potential M&A target, pulling financial figures from industry-standard data sources and creating a formatted PowerPoint deck based on a bank’s preformatted style guide.
“It’s very easy to make slides that look good, but it’s much harder to make slides [that] actually make sense,” Turley said. “To get here, ChatGPT had to choose the relevant peers. It had to pull the prices into a spreadsheet. It had to check the chart against the data, and it had to explain the selloff and the rebound.”
Banker disruption?
What separates this version from the product it’s based on, ChatGPT Work, is native data access from LSEG, Daloopa and Pitchbook that furnishes the system with things like financial statements and earnings transcripts, as well as automated access to users’ existing data subscriptions.
Other features tailor-built for finance include citations that allow users to trace data back to source filings and audit charts, as well as administrative controls for sensitive deal materials.
While Turley said that there was “a ton of demand” for this version of ChatGPT, which is initially geared toward investment banking and equity research, he declined to name banks that have signed on for it.
When asked by CNBC whether this latest version of ChatGPT would reduce the need for investment banks to hire junior bankers, Turley framed the release as an efficiency boost that maximizes productivity per employee.
“If you study the life of an analyst or of a banker, depending on the industry, they’re working 100-hour weeks,” Turley said. “I think in the same way that Microsoft Excel transformed the industry and allowed them to produce better analysis faster, you will see technology like this do the same.”
Still, the product raises fundamental questions for an industry long built on a rigorous apprenticeship model. If generative AI can execute multistep tasks like research and pitchbook formatting in minutes, Wall Street will be forced to rethink how it trains, and how many it needs, of its next generation of dealmakers.
Last month, Chris Churchman, the Goldman Sachs partner in charge of one the bank’s flagship AI projects, warned that the automation of tasks that help train junior bankers risks causing “cognitive atrophy” in the next generation of financiers.
“Reasoning is still important,” Churchman said at the time. “You still need to reason about [problems] and structure it into an argument, and now we’re delegating reasoning.”
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