[Update, Sept. 9, 3:45 p.m. UTC: Updates with pricing information in the first paragraph.]

Hunter Biden’s LAPTOP memecoin fell 95.7% in its first hour of trading on Wednesday, as the son of former US President Joe Biden officially entered the market for politically themed cryptocurrencies.

The token, issued on Ethereum layer-2 network Base, traded at $2.0977 at 3:45 pm UTC, after opening at $199.50, according to CoinGecko data. It recorded more than $13.4 million in trading volume.

Most of the top holders are wallets funded in the past 10 days, according to onchain data visualization platform Bubblemaps.

“The symbol they used to try to end me is now a symbol of resilience, redemption and recovery,” Biden said in an X post on Wednesday, responding to public backlash.

Biden also said he understood the cynicism around memecoins, called President Donald Trump’s token a “grift” and warned buyers not to expect him or anyone else to make LAPTOP more valuable.

The memecoin is promoted as an attempt to reclaim the “laptop narrative,” which centers on a MacBook that Biden reportedly left at a Delaware repair shop in 2019. The New York Post published emails and other files purported to have come from the device before the 2020 presidential election. Trump allies used the material against Hunter Biden and his father, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Related: Joe Biden’s son to launch memecoin, will send to TRUMP holders: WSJ

On Monday, Biden teased LAPTOP on X with a post showing the token’s ticker, accompanied by a montage of media coverage of the laptop.

The announcement drew criticism from the likes of digital investigator Stephen Findeisen, known as Coffeezilla, who called LAPTOP a “shitcoin” and urged his followers not to buy it. X account “scupytrooples” told Biden there was “still time to walk this back.”

Base founder Jesse Pollak said in an X post that the project had contacted his team, but Base made a “conscious decision” not to help with the token’s design or promotion.

Biden did not respond to Cointelegraph’s query before publication. 

LAPTOP disclosures set 2% of token supply for TRUMP token losers

Biden’s earlier criticism of the Trump family’s crypto ventures also gave traders a ready-made hypocrisy argument. 

In an Aug. 21 post, Biden accused World Liberty Financial of using political influence, centralized controls and leverage to benefit its founders, while saying the crypto industry deserved better. 

He has now launched a memecoin built around his own political identity, with founders allocated a chunk of the supply.

Related: California Senate passes bill to ban memecoin issuance by public officials

The project’s disclosures describe LAPTOP as a digital collectible with no utility, ownership rights, voting rights, yield or profit-sharing rights. The token has a fixed supply of 1 billion, with 350 million tokens circulating at launch.

Founders, including Biden, are allocated 300 million tokens, or 30% of the supply. Those tokens are locked for six months and then vested monthly over the following 24 months. Another 30% is tied to political, cultural and crypto predictions, with tokens burned when specified outcomes occur and released to charity if they do not.

The disclosures also outline airdrop figures, with the initial round representing 10% of the total supply. Of those, 2% is reserved for wallets that lost money on TRUMP and 8% for eligible subscribers to Biden’s “Where’s Hunter” Substack newsletter.

A separate 10% future airdrop is to be distributed at the foundation’s discretion. That means 20% is allocated to airdrops overall, while the specific TRUMP-loss allocation is capped at 2%.

Magazine: Is Bitcoin too volatile to risk your retirement on?

An amended complaint filed by Mintvest Capital against Energy & Compute, LLC (formerly Coinmint) alleges that the firm’s chief exec, Ashton Soniat, misappropriated BTC from the firm’s mining operations.

It also broadly alleges securities fraud and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) offences.

Specifically, the lawsuit claims that “on each occasion when new machines were added, Mr. Soniat told investors that production started on a later date than it actually did.”

“During the gap periods — between the actual start up and the announced startup — Mr. Soniat redirected all BTC Coinmint produced to his personal BTC wallet.”

The lawsuit alleges that, in total, “Mr. Soniat stole… 448.7193 BTC.”

Bitcoin (BTC) struggled below $80,000 on Wednesday as attention refocused on the Japanese yen.

Key points:

• Bitcoin saw further macro headwinds as US-Iran strikes pushed Brent crude oil above $100 per barrel.
• The Japanese yen continued to trade around 153 per dollar, its highest levels since February as yen shorts stayed near record highs.
• US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted at further interventions in yen currency markets to come.

Bitcoin lacks momentum as Iran strikes sour risk-asset mood

Data from TradingView showed the local upside in the BTC/USD pair reversing as it attempted to revisit the $80,000 mark. BTC is currently down by around 0.4% on the day. 

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

US stocks also drifted lower at the Wall Street open, fueled by fresh US strikes on Iranian oil tankers. The tensions helped send oil prices to new three-month highs, building on gains from the day prior. 

At the time of writing, WTI crude traded above $96 per barrel, while Brent crude surged above $101 per barrel for the first time since late July.

CFDs on Brent crude oil one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Traders also eyed fresh developments in the yen as Japan’s currency hit its highest levels against the dollar since February. It is currently at $0.0065, up 6.5% since the start of August.

JPY/USD one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Previously, Cointelegraph reported on repeated joint interventions in foreign exchange markets by Japan and the US, which resulted in the rapid strengthening. The yen’s gains continued despite speculation that Washington may keep Japan from selling US Treasuries as part of future interventions.

Yen short interest lingers near record highs

Citing data from Bloomberg on Wednesday, Barchart flagged record yen short positioning at the start of September, with the total hovering above 5 trillion yen. 

Related: Bitcoin SOPR metric sees longest profit run of 2026 as new analysis challenges bear market

Japanese yen short positioning. Source: Barchart on X.com

In subsequent commentary, Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo, told Reuters that the yen’s continued strength would have implications for these shorts as part of an unwinding of the yen carry trade. The USD/JPY pair is key for liquidity conditions that could ultimately impact crypto markets.

“The carry trade is vulnerable because this unwind is happening before the BOJ has even delivered its expected hike,” she said. 

“Some yen shorts have already been cut, but positioning still looks sizeable, so further yen strength can turn a gradual reduction in leverage into a much faster, self-reinforcing unwind.”

The risk was exacerbated by the Bank of Japan’s anticipated 0.25% interest-rate hike at its next meeting on Sept. 28.

Last month, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested that the door was open to future yen intervention operations. This week, he doubled down on those hints, appearing to dare short traders to bet against central banks.

“When we intervene with the Japanese yen, I have pretty good insight into what the Bank of Japan is going to do, what Japanese policymakers are going to do. I have asymmetric information. I am the house now,” he said in an event at Southern Methodist University in Texas on Tuesday, quoted by the Financial Times. 

Kalshi has filed to list two dollar-settled perpetual futures tied to gold and silver, extending its no-expiry contract lineup beyond 18 cryptocurrencies for eligible U.S. traders.

Kalshi’s Sept. 9 regulatory filings with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission show that the company plans to list GOLDPERP and SILVERPERP through its registered derivatives exchange.

Under the proposed terms, each product would give traders exposure to changes in the relevant metal’s spot price without requiring delivery of physical gold or silver. Both contracts would settle in U.S. dollars and remain open indefinitely, according to the filings.

The company submitted the contracts under CFTC Regulation 40.2(a), which allows a designated contract market to certify that a new product follows the Commodity Exchange Act and the regulator’s rules. Unlike a formal approval proceeding, self-certification does not necessarily involve an affirmative vote by the commission on each contract.

Kalshi gold and silver perps will use Pyth prices

According to the contract terms, GOLDPERP will track the spot value of one troy ounce of gold in U.S. dollars. SILVERPERP will follow the corresponding U.S. dollar spot price for silver.

Kalshi identified Pyth Network as the price source for both products. Pyth publishes market data supplied by trading firms, exchanges, and financial institutions, which decentralized applications and trading platforms use to price assets.

Rather than ending on a set date, the contracts will use regular funding payments to keep their traded prices close to their reference markets. Depending on how a contract trades against its spot benchmark, traders holding long positions may pay traders holding short positions, or the payment may flow in the opposite direction.

The structure removes the need to move a position from an expiring futures contract into a later one. Traditional futures traders often conduct that process, known as rolling, when they want to maintain exposure beyond a contract’s settlement date.

In its filing, Kalshi said a perpetual structure could reduce rollover costs for market participants that keep long-running gold exposure. The company identified potential users, including financial institutions, refiners, bullion dealers, and companies that use the metal in their operations.

Because both products settle in cash, traders will not receive bars, coins, or other physical metal. The filings also state that contract holders cannot demand delivery from Kalshi when closing or settling a position.

Round-the-clock trading removes the usual expiry cycle

Under the submitted specifications, GOLDPERP and SILVERPERP will operate 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Kalshi’s proposed schedule includes weekends and holidays, when major U.S. commodity futures markets are normally closed.

The filed schedule goes beyond an earlier plan for 24-hour trading on five days each week. Around-the-clock access would allow eligible customers to adjust positions while standard U.S. metals venues are closed, although liquidity and price differences may vary outside regular market hours.

Perpetual contracts also introduce costs and risks that do not apply in the same way to unleveraged ownership of physical metal. Kalshi’s product design uses funding payments, while leveraged positions may face liquidation if the market moves far enough against the trader.

For U.S. investors, the contracts offer regulated derivatives exposure without requiring ownership of gold, silver or shares in a metal-backed exchange-traded fund. They also provide a different structure from listed options and dated futures, since neither contract requires the holder to select a monthly or quarterly expiration.

Kalshi said its silver filing accounts for conditions in the physical market, including supply deficits reported over several years and constrained availability during 2026. Since SILVERPERP cannot be converted into physical silver, the company said the contract would not permit holders to demand metal or place delivery pressure on its reference market.

Kalshi has expanded its perpetual futures lineup

The metal filings follow Kalshi’s rapid addition of cryptocurrency perpetuals. On Sept. 4, the company added five crypto perps tied to BNB, Cardano, Worldcoin, Aave, and Venice Token.

According to the platform’s product information, the five contracts are margined and settled in U.S. dollars, permit long and short positions, and carry different leverage limits. Maximum leverage reaches approximately 4.5 times for BNB and 1.9 times for Venice Token.

Including Bitcoin, Kalshi now lists perpetual futures connected to 18 cryptocurrencies. Its existing products include Ether, XRP, Solana, Hyperliquid, and Zcash, allowing users to trade their prices without holding the underlying tokens.

In June, the company also introduced an XRP perpetual after filing it under the same self-certification rule. The XRP contract filing specified a cash-settled product with no maturity date and a reference rate supplied by CME CF Benchmarks.

Kalshi took a different route with its first Bitcoin perpetual. The CFTC approved BTCPERP in May following a formal review, creating a regulated path for eligible U.S. traders to access a product that had previously been associated mainly with offshore cryptocurrency exchanges.

By June, Kalshi’s perpetual futures had generated more than $5.5 billion in trading volume, according to company data cited in previous reporting. Later that month, Cboe Global Markets was considering whether to convert its long-dated Bitcoin and Ether futures into perpetual products after Kalshi’s contracts recorded more than $8.5 billion in volume.

CME’s lawsuit challenges the CFTC’s treatment of perps

Kalshi’s expansion into metal-linked contracts comes while the legal treatment of U.S. perpetual futures remains contested. CME Group sued the CFTC in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on June 18, challenging the regulator’s decision to treat Kalshi’s Bitcoin perpetual as a futures contract.

CME argued that BTCPERP should be regulated as a swap, which would place it under a different legal framework. The exchange operator also claimed that the CFTC’s decision created a competitive disadvantage for established futures venues.

In September, the regulator sought the case’s dismissal, arguing that CME had not shown a concrete injury required to establish standing. The CFTC said CME could seek to list comparable perpetual futures through the same regulatory framework available to Kalshi.

The regulator also cited CME’s Bitcoin and Ether futures activity, arguing that the exchange’s volumes in June and August exceeded their May levels. According to the CFTC’s motion, the figures did not support CME’s claim that Kalshi’s Bitcoin contract had caused a measurable competitive loss.

CME may contest the regulator’s position in subsequent filings. The federal court has not ruled on the dismissal request or decided whether cryptocurrency perpetuals should be legally classified as futures or swaps.