Last night, US President Joe Biden posted a photo of himself with "laser eyes" on his personal social media, with the text "Just like we drew it up."
The tweet, posted Sunday night after the Kansas City Chiefs defended their Super Bowl title, was actually a reference to the "Dark Brandon" meme that started trending back in 2021 and was cited again by Biden as a jab at the Republican Party. Conspiracy theories about the Super Bowl and Taylor Swift have become a public relations tool for Biden's re-election campaign after some claims that the Super Bowl was rigged to ensure the victory of the Kansas City Chiefs, where Taylor's current boyfriend, Travis Kelce, plays.
The meme has also sparked heated discussions in the crypto community, because laser eyes are often used as a firm bullish attitude toward Bitcoin, and community members regard this as a "cultural output" of crypto.
Market data shows that Bitcoin leads the crypto market and brings us "good luck" in the Year of the Dragon. BTC, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, broke through $50,000 in the short term, hitting the highest level since December 2021.
The stock prices of crypto-related companies have continued to surge. As of the close of U.S. stocks on Monday, MicroStrategy rose 11%, trading platform Coinbase rose 4%, and mining company Marathon Digital rose 14%.
It doesn’t matter what the meaning behind Biden’s emoji is. For the 24/7 encryption market, what is needed most is celebrity momentum.
Bankless retweeted and hinted at the potential impact on the ETH/BTC trend. Anonymous
The origin of symbols
Franklin Templeton, a 77-year-old asset management firm, is named for Benjamin Franklin because he "embodied the ideals of frugality and prudence," according to its website.
In January, the company changed its official X avatar to give the American founding father laser eyes, a popular meme among Bitcoin bulls.
“Speculation is a feature of cryptocurrencies, not a bug,” Franklin Templeton tweeted on January 17. One person cited the "huge potential" of some blockchain networks and posted a meme.
Franklin Templeton is just one part of this cultural wave.
In 2021, since Tesla CEO Elon Musk officially supported Bitcoin, he has taken on another identity as a Bitcoin evangelist. On February 20, Elon Musk suddenly changed his avatar into a girl with "laser eyes" and a Bitcoin pattern in the background.
This avatar was originally a picture that Musk used on Twitter before. The focus is not on the Bitcoin logo, but on the red "laser eyes." If you search the topic "#LaserRayUntil100K" on Twitter, you will see It was discovered that under the leadership of Musk, Twitter has become a sea of laser eyes.
MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, CoinShares CEO Meltem Demirors, and even U.S. Senator Cythia Lummis have all become participants in the event.
So what do laser eyes express?
“Laser eyes are meant to communicate activation and increasing power levels,” said Neeraj Agrawal, director of communications at cryptocurrency think tank Coin Center. “Think about when a character’s eyes glow in a movie.”
As the meme has evolved, laser eyes have become inseparable from Bitcoin. On Twitter, many Bitcoin evangelists relentlessly promote and publicize.
Biden’s stance on cryptocurrencies
Despite the buzz caused by the laser eye photos, the Biden administration remains cautious about cryptocurrencies.
Biden sees cryptocurrencies as having potential benefits, as well as risks and challenges. He hopes that government departments can formulate reasonable policies and rules to protect consumers and investors, maintain financial stability and national security, promote financial innovation and inclusive finance, and maintain the United States' position in the global financial system and economic competition.
On March 9, 2022, Biden signed an executive order directing government agencies to carefully study the benefits and risks that cryptocurrencies may bring, including studying the possibility of creating a U.S. digital central bank currency (CBDC).
The executive order requires the Treasury, Commerce Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other departments to submit reports to Biden on the "future of currency" and the role of cryptocurrency in it, explaining how to protect the rights and interests of consumers and investors, Ensure financial stability, prevent illegal financial activities, maintain the United States' position in the global financial system and economic competition, promote inclusive finance, etc.
Biden’s executive order has been welcomed and supported by some in the cryptocurrency industry and community, who see it as a regulatory opportunity to provide more transparency and trust for cryptocurrencies and to promote U.S. leadership in cryptocurrency innovation. .
Additionally, non-profit advocacy group Stand with Crypto lists Laser Eye as having a generally negative stance on digital assets, based on public statements. This cautious view is consistent with broader regulatory trends that highlight the complexities of integrating cryptocurrencies into the mainstream financial ecosystem.
While Biden’s Super Bowl post temporarily blurred the lines between political messaging and cryptocurrency advocacy, it ultimately served as a reminder of the dynamic interplay between internet culture and political communication.
