Hunter Biden’s newly launched memecoin has already become embroiled in controversy, from its spectacular downfall to questions surrounding how it was promoted. But a comment Biden made more than a month before the launch now stands out in hindsight: He openly acknowledged that one reason he wanted to get involved in cryptocurrency was to make money.
In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Biden discussed his finances, his various business ventures and his attempts to rebuild his life after losing his law license and accumulating millions of dollars in legal bills.
When the conversation turned to cryptocurrency, Biden said he genuinely believed in the technology and wanted to enter the space. But he also offered a much simpler explanation.
“I really believe in cryptocurrency. I really believe in those things. I want to do something in that space. And, you know, not because of any other thing than I believe in it, but you know what? I also want to make some money.”
At the time, the comment could easily have been taken as a straightforward admission from someone trying to rebuild his finances. Biden said he was “several million miles away” from financial security and described his art, Substack and consulting work as ways of making a living.
Now, with Biden having launched his own cryptocurrency, that admission has taken on a different significance.
Biden’s $LAPTOP memecoin launched this week, tying the cryptocurrency directly to the infamous laptop controversy that has followed him for years. The project was presented as something of a counterpoint to the Trump family’s crypto ventures, with Biden’s team saying the token was intended to represent “resilience, redemption and recovery.”
The market’s reaction was considerably less enthusiastic.
The token initially surged after launch before collapsing dramatically. Within a short period, $LAPTOP had lost roughly 95% of its value, with reports later putting the decline at around 98% from its debut. The collapse prompted accusations of a possible rug pull and renewed criticism of political figures entering the notoriously volatile memecoin market.
Biden pushed back against that criticism, arguing that the launch was overwhelmed by demand and that low liquidity, technical issues and “predatory snipers” contributed to the downfall. He also insisted that the team’s allocation was locked and that he personally had not made any money from the launch.
The structure of the project was itself unusual. According to reporting around the launch, portions of the token supply were designated for founders, liquidity, charity and administrative expenses, while another portion was intended for people who had lost money on Donald Trump’s $TRUMP memecoin and for Biden’s own subscribers.
That attempt to position $LAPTOP as an alternative to Trump’s crypto ventures, however, did little to protect it from the same problems that have plagued political memecoins before it.
Crypto investigator Coffeezilla, in a video, pushed back against the explanation that the disastrous launch was simply the result of snipers and technical problems.
The pattern, he argued, is familiar in the memecoin world. Tokens can attract enormous attention immediately after launch, creating opportunities for early participants while ordinary buyers are left holding assets after the initial excitement disappears.
The criticism became particularly pointed because $LAPTOP was not operating in a vacuum. Political figures and celebrities have increasingly used memecoins to turn their names, brands or political identities into tradable tokens. Donald Trump, Melania Trump and former New York City Mayor Eric Adams have all had their own ventures experience dramatic volatility.
And that brings the story back to what Biden said to Carlson more than a month ago: He did not merely say that he believed in cryptocurrency. He explicitly acknowledged that he also saw the space as an opportunity to make money.
The controversy then expanded beyond the coin itself.
Andrew Callaghan, the creator and host of Channel 5, revealed in a video that he had provided Biden’s team with an email list from his merchandise website shortly before the memecoin launch.
According to Callaghan, Biden contacted him roughly eight days before the launch and pitched what he described as a giveaway for Channel 5 supporters. Biden reportedly framed himself as the “anti-Trump” and said he wanted to give something back to the people who had supported Callaghan.
Callaghan said he eventually found an email list through his merchandise website and sent fewer than 5,000 addresses to Biden’s team. He said the list came from customers who had opted in to receive things such as news, promotions and offers.
The problem was that Callaghan said he did not understand that the list would be connected to a cryptocurrency launch.
When journalists later contacted him about his involvement with what was being called the “laptop coin,” Callaghan publicly distanced himself from the project. He said he had never endorsed cryptocurrency or agreed to help sell a memecoin and described himself as someone who had deliberately stayed away from NFTs and meme coins because he considered the business predatory.
Callaghan said he confronted Biden about what happened, after which Biden apologized and contacted publications to correct what Callaghan considered an inaccurate characterization of his role. Callaghan also said he asked Biden’s team to permanently delete the email list and was told that it had been deleted.
Still, Callaghan acknowledged that giving the list over without asking more questions was his mistake.
“It’s my bad. I should have asked more questions,” he said.
Biden has maintained that he personally did not profit from the launch and has rejected the idea that the project was designed to enrich insiders. The collapse also does not, by itself, prove that anyone associated with the project intentionally manipulated the market.
But the episode has nevertheless made his earlier admission difficult to ignore.
