Former U.S. President Joe Biden's son, Robert Hunter Biden, has worn many hats over decades. A Yale-educated lawyer, he has worked as a lobbyist, investor, and, more recently, a professional
Former U.S. President Joe Biden's son, Robert Hunter Biden, has worn many hats over decades.
A Yale-educated lawyer, he has worked as a lobbyist, investor, and, more recently, a professional artist.
Not known to shy away from voicing his opinion, he recently warned that the U.S. federal debt could hit a massive figure within two years.
Related: Billionaire Ray Dalio reveals deadline for U.S. debt crisis
Though Hunter Biden has never held public office or run for political office, his life became the center of a major political controversy ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
When he dropped off his MacBook Pro at a Delaware repair shop in April 2019, there was no way he could have foreseen what the future holds.
The New York Post got hold of the contents in the laptop and published several emails, photos and business records in October 2020, alleging possible corruption by Joe Biden.
Donald Trump and his allies used the raging controversy to criticize the Biden family ahead of the 2020 election.
Though some former intelligence officials initially suggested the story could be Russian disinformation, federal prosecutors later confirmed the laptop was real and its contents matched data obtained from Biden's Apple iCloud account under a search warrant, according to court filings reported by Fox News.
The former president's son has faced troubles on other legal fronts too.
In 2024, he was convicted on federal gun charges in June and pleaded guilty to federal tax charges in September.
However, his father pardoned him in December 2024, weeks before leaving the White House.
Last month, Hunter Biden launched the LAPTOP meme coin to capitalize on the laptop controversy.
A meme coin, as the name suggests, is a type of cryptocurrency inspired by internet jokes, viral trends, or pop culture that relies entirely on social media hype rather than traditional financial utility.
Biden used the opportunity to take aim at Trump's meme coin, Official Trump (TRUMP), saying 20% of LAPTOP's supply is allocated to airdrops, including for those who lost money trading TRUMP tokens.
Though LAPTOP peaked at $199.51 on Sep. 9, it soon crashed and is currently trading at $0.075.
Nonetheless, the whole episode showed an individual deeply interested in the world of crypto.
On Oct. 6, popular crypto investor and podcaster Anthony Pompliano published an interview with Biden in which the former president's son admitted to being a "big fan" of Bitcoin.
He revealed he doesn't own the cryptocurrency right now but aspires to hold it one day.
When Pompliano asked him to address the relevance of Bitcoin in the face of money printing and inflation, Biden said the way the government prints the U.S. dollar whenever it wants to make fiat currency a "sham."
The value of any asset depends on its scarcity. But there is no limit to how much money a government can print, essentially devaluing the fiat currency.
He reminded how the U.S. dollar has lost 97% of its value since 1913.
US Vice President JD Vance addresses $40 trillion debt (1:55)He also brought up how the U.S. government is sitting on a federal debt of $40 trillion, and warned that it could hit nearly $50 trillion within two years.
Inflation is just built in and it's a built-in tax on the people, he added.
Biden isn't saying something unusual.
Dollar devaluation, soaring federal debt, and inflation are what make a currency like Bitcoin — with its supply capped at 21 million coins — extremely valuable, Bitcoiners argue. They believe it's the digital version of gold.
Biden said the idea of a decentralized money protected by a blockchain network is obviously the future.
During the interview, Biden criticized his father's administration for having what he called a "knee-jerk reaction" to the crypto industry.
The incumbent banking industry made it difficult for the Joe Biden administration to see beyond the negatives of crypto, he remarked.
"I think that they just were very shortsighted."
The crypto industry has frequently criticized the Biden administration for not making crypto rules and pursuing a "regulation by enforcement" agenda.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds up the “GENIUS Act” alongside Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) after signing the bill into law during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House July 18, 2025 in Washington, DC.But once Trump returned to the White House last year, the industry got relief as several securities violation cases got dismissed or settled.
In March the same year, Trump signed an executive order to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve. In July, he signed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act into law to regulate the U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins.
Biden did not spare Trump either.
He was extremely critical of Trump vis-à-vis his approach to the crypto industry due to the president's "personal involvement" in the industry to bring "profit for himself and his family."
"They have embedded themselves in terms of investments into organizations that are 100% reliant upon this administration's oversight."
Trump's financial disclosure in June disclosed that he earned over $1.4 billion in crypto-related income during 2025.
Biden said it made any consensus on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act impossible to reach.
The most important crypto legislation in the U.S. so far, the CLARITY Act is stuck because the Democrats and Republicans have failed to reach a common ground on the ethics provision.
"As much as he (Trump) has promised to be the crypto president, I think that he's done more harm than good," Biden told Pompliano.
Though the House passed the bill in 2025, it couldn't secure enough votes in the Senate last month and its advance was stalled.
