- LAPTOP surged above $300 before crashing more than 99% during its first hours of trading.
- The team blamed heavy demand, sniper bots and insufficient liquidity for the token’s sharp price swings.
- The project will deploy 4M LAPTOP tokens to Aerodrome pools while 10M tokens are set for burns.
The LAPTOP token saw highly volatile moves within its first hours of trading on Wednesday, surging as high as having a market cap worth around $110 billion only for it to lose almost all its value, according to the report in DexScreener. After the airdrop, the token went above $300 and was trading around $0.84 at 12:10 a.m. ET Thursday.
Source: Hunter Biden
The team behind the token, launched by Hunter Biden, attributed the sharp price movement to heavy early demand, automated sniper bots, and insufficient initial liquidity. In a Medium post published Wednesday, the team said the opening liquidity pool priced LAPTOP at $0.05 per token and could not absorb the initial demand quickly enough.
The project said it is now taking steps to increase liquidity across its trading pools. It also reported that 10 million LAPTOP tokens tied to two prediction events will be burned, reducing the circulating supply by 1% within the first week, according to its statement.
LAPTOP Token Launch Sees Extreme Price Movement
The initial LAPTOP pool opened at $0.05 and encountered what the team described as significant demand. According to the project, the conditions attracted sniper bots, which are automated trading programs that target tokens in newly launched pools.
The team said the market maker did not initially provide enough liquidity to accommodate the demand. That imbalance preceded a rapid price increase followed by an equally sharp decline as additional liquidity became available.
The scale of the move was reflected in the token’s market capitalization. DexScreener data cited in the report showed LAPTOP briefly reaching approximately $110 billion before the subsequent collapse.
Blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps separately reported significant losses among traders. LAPTOP trading was estimated to have cost almost 80% of traders their money, including two individuals whose losses were reported as between $100,000 and $1 million.
Bubblemaps also pinpointed some 100 traders whose losses were between $10,000 and $100,000 and almost 700 traders whose losses were between $1,000 and $10,000.
Team Plans New Liquidity Incentives
In response to the early trading conditions, the LAPTOP team said it would allocate 4 million tokens to liquidity incentives on Aerodrome pools. The amount represents 0.40% of the token’s total supply, with deployment scheduled to begin at midnight UTC on September 10.
The project said the measure is intended to help available liquidity better match trading demand. The announcement followed the sharp price fluctuations seen during LAPTOP’s opening trading period.
The team also addressed concerns surrounding token distribution and access before launch. It said the project was announced two days before trading and that the contract address, complete token allocation, Hacken security audit, the Token Disclosures document, and the MiCA-compliant whitepaper had been published before trading began.
According to the team’s statement, LAPTOP had no token presale and no allocations for investors, influencers, or key opinion leaders. It also said nobody purchased the token before it became available for trading.
The founders’ 30% allocation is locked for six months and vests over two years, with the tokens held in Coinbase Custody, while the separate 30% Predictions allocation is locked for 12 months.
LAPTOP Token Supply Could Fall Through Predictions
Another part of the project’s structure involves its predictions allocation. The team said 30% of the total supply is connected to public and verifiable real-world events.
When a prediction resolves YES, the tokens assigned to that event are burned. If the prediction does not resolve YES, the associated tokens are sent to charity, according to the project.
The first event involved 5 million LAPTOP tokens and was resolved after digital artist Beeple referenced LAPTOP, the team said. The project also said a second prediction had resolved YES, bringing the total number of tokens scheduled for burning to 10 million.
The team did not identify the second prediction in the supplied material. It said the two events would permanently remove the tokens from supply.
The project also said 80 million LAPTOP tokens are claimable by Hunter’s Substack subscribers who joined before September 6. Each individual is allocated a minimum of 784 tokens, and the claims process will run for 30 days. Any unclaimed tokens after this period will be burnt.
Frequently Asked Questions
What has happened to the LAPTOP token after the launch?
LAPTOP token rose above $300 before dropping down over 99% within its first few hours of listing.
Why was the LAPTOP token so volatile?
The team attributed the sharp price swings to strong demand, sniper bots and insufficient initial liquidity.
How is the LAPTOP team responding to the volatility?
The team plans to deploy 4 million LAPTOP tokens to incentivize liquidity on Aerodrome pools starting September 10.
