Investors lost US$3.8 billion on Trump's memecoin — now Hunter Biden's LAPTOP memecoin targets Trump coin investors' losses

For Canadians, the politics are beside the point. What matters is the pattern: a public figure launches a coin, the hype pulls in retail buyers and the value collapses long before most of them get out. It’s worth understanding before the next one shows up in your feed.

What is actually happening with the new LAPTOP token?

LAPTOP is built almost entirely around attention, not fundamentals. Its value depends on whether the Biden-Trump feud keeps generating headlines, and its tokenomics are explicitly tied to future political milestones rather than any product, revenue or asset. That’s a defining feature of memecoins generally: prices move on sentiment and social media momentum, not earnings or cash flow.

Why Trump’s own coin is the cautionary tale

Official Trump launched around Trump’s January 2025 inauguration and hit an all-time high of $73.43 on January 19, 2025, according to CoinGecko data. By September 2026, it was trading in the low single digits — a decline of roughly 98% from that peak. Nearly 989,000 of the roughly 1.48 million wallets that ever bought TRUMP — about two out of every three buyers — were sitting on losses totaling US$3.8 billion in combined realized and unrealized losses as of the end of June 2026, according to blockchain analytics firm Nansen, as first reported by The New York Times. That’s a reminder that most buyers who chase a memecoin after launch day are buying near the top.

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) warns that trading crypto assets carries elevated risk that may not suit many retail investors, since the value and liquidity of crypto assets tend to be highly volatile. Many platforms Canadians can access are not registered here, meaning the safeguards that protect investors’ money from loss, theft or misuse may not apply. Before buying into a memecoin, Canadians can check whether a platform is registered using the CSA’s national registration search.

How does this affect your taxes and registered accounts?

Memecoins are not a qualified investment for a TFSA or RRSP, so they have to be bought and held in a taxable, non-registered account. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) treats disposing of crypto — selling it, trading it or otherwise cashing out — as a taxable event, generally reported on Schedule 3 of the T1 return, with capital losses available to offset capital gains. If the coin’s value collapses, that loss still needs to be tracked and documented, not just absorbed and forgotten.

What to do before buying into the next political memecoin

Before buying, size the position like discretionary spending, not a portfolio holding. For smaller, fun-money bets, that might mean setting aside an amount you are fully prepared to lose. For larger sums, or money earmarked for a home, retirement or an emergency fund, the equation changes fast. Confirm the platform is registered, keep a record of the purchase price for tax purposes and decide in advance what happens to that money if the hype disappears as quickly as it arrived.

LAPTOP is unlikely to be the last time a public figure turns a political feud into a tradable token. The lesson from Trump’s own coin is not that memecoins always lose money — it’s that the people who profit most are usually the ones who created the coin, not the ones who bought it after the headlines. Before the next one lands, decide what role, if any, that kind of bet has in your money — and make sure it is not one you cannot afford to lose.