Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Warner can be found on X.

Hunter Biden’s LAPTOP Memecoin Crashes After Launch

Hunter Biden’s LAPTOP memecoin launched on Base on Wednesday and reached $190.81 just 120 seconds later. The token fell 90% within 30 minutes. After one hour, it was trading near $4.77, and by the afternoon it had declined to about $1.80—roughly 99% below its peak. Decrypt reported separately on the launch and decline.

The token’s airdrop was intended to compensate wallets that were underwater on Donald Trump’s meme coin. Instead, its first day produced another group of heavily underwater holders.

Some traders profited. One wallet withdrew $249,800 from Binance before the launch, bought 9,124 LAPTOP tokens at approximately $27 each, and sold most of the position minutes later at around $129 per token for about $1.18 million. The trade generated a gain of approximately $930,000 after a five-minute holding period.

Subscribers to Hunter Biden’s Substack received airdrops worth more than $400,000 at the token’s peak, and some were able to sell those holdings. Other traders recorded substantial losses. One wallet spent about $200,000 to buy 919 tokens near $218 each. The position was worth less than $3,000 an hour later, representing a 98.5% loss.

The launch did not materially affect the broader market. Major cryptocurrencies and altcoins were largely unchanged in the hours that followed, and leading on-chain tokens were also unaffected until a broader downturn later in the day.

Macro, Crypto and Markets

Major cryptocurrencies were down 1% to 3%. Bitcoin (BTC) fell 1% to $77,800, Ether (ETH) declined 1% to $2,460, Solana (SOL) dropped 3% to $101, HYPE fell 4% to $82.60, and Zcash (ZEC) declined 2% to $1,220.

The leading altcoin gainers included KAS, up 9%; STABLE, up 4%; and RAY, up 2%. Recent leaders VVV and LIT fell 10% in a difficult session for most altcoins.

Oil rose 2% to $97, while gold fell 1% to $4,420. Stock futures were mixed as oil continued to rise, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.2% and Nasdaq futures down 0.4%.

Consensys is splitting into two companies. The existing company will rebrand as MetaMask under Joe Lubin, while a new Consensys will retain Linea and the institutional infrastructure business by the end of the year. Decrypt previously reported on the restructuring.

Nasdaq invested $100 million in Kraken parent company Payward at a $21 billion valuation, according to Bloomberg.

Trezor said hackers breached its third-party email provider and sent a fake “Critical Security Alert” claiming there was an STM32 entropy flaw. Researchers said BitBox users received the same message. Decrypt reported on the breach.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said the company does not need AMC’s consent to issue stock tokens. He described the tokens as debt securities backed one-to-one by shares held as collateral, with dividends but no voting rights. CoinDesk reported on the dispute.

Block applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust charter to custody Bitcoin through Builders Bank \u0026 Trust. The proposed institution would be an uninsured, non-depository bank consolidating work currently conducted under more than 50 state licenses. Decrypt covered the application.

The U.S. Secret Service froze $52.8 million in USDT across 52 wallets linked to the Telegram-based scam marketplace Xinbi Guarantee. The marketplace has processed at least $24 billion since 2022. Decrypt reported on the asset freeze.

DoubleZero added Kalshi’s election and politics order books to its low-latency data feed ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. More than $133 million had already been wagered on House and Senate races, according to CoinDesk.

Corporate Treasuries and ETFs

Bitcoin ETFs recorded $120 million in net outflows on Wednesday, while Ether ETFs recorded $35 million in outflows.

Meme Coin Tracker

Meme coin leaders declined broadly: DOGE fell 6%, SHIB 5%, PEPE 7%, PENGU 6%, TRUMP 10%, and SPX 6%.

Robinhood chain leaders also declined. Pons fell 28% to a $380 million market capitalization, AI dropped 10% to $200 million, and Cashcat fell 12% to $160 million. MOO rose 70%, Orbio gained 110%, astro increased 85%, and Route rose 80%.

Solana recorded a high-volume session. The leading movers included Penis, up 50 times; Baton, up 70 times; Ember, up 135%; and Cate, up 40%. Ansem fell 3% to a $170 million market capitalization.

The Stonkfun ecosystem initially declined after Pump.fun introduced Custom Pairs but later recovered. Stonk fell 12% to $170 million, ZCAT dropped 20% to $86 million, BTC rose 70% to $7 million, and Nearkat gained 85% to $5 million.

Token, Airdrop and Protocol Tracker

Lighter’s open interest has increased by more than 75% since its integration with Robinhood went live, reaching $1.5 billion.

Pump.fun introduced “Custom pairs,” allowing new tokens to be paired with tokenized stocks, major cryptocurrencies and other assets. The platform matched Hyperliquid’s daily revenue at $1.8 million, putting the two protocols back in third and fourth place behind Tether and Circle. Pump.fun announced the feature on X.

Stonkfun recorded its fourth consecutive day with more than $1 million in revenue, generating $1.35 million.

NFTs

NFT leaders were mostly unchanged. CryptoPunks held at 30 ETH, Bored Ape Yacht Club at 6.8 ETH, and Pudgy Penguins at 3.7 ETH. Otherdeeds, up 20%, and The 404 Machines, up 12%, were the leading movers.

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