Last night, US President Joe Biden posted a photo of his "laser eyes" on his personal social media with the caption "Just like we drew it up".

The tweet was posted after the Kansas City Chiefs defended their Super Bowl title on Sunday night. It was actually the "Dark Brandon" meme that became popular as early as 2021. Biden quoted it again to satirize the Republican conspiracy theory about the Super Bowl and Taylor Swift. Some previous remarks claimed that this Super Bowl was rigged to ensure that the Kansas City Chiefs, where Taylor's current boyfriend Travis Kelce is, won, thus becoming a public relations tool for Biden's re-election campaign.

The emoticon package has also sparked heated discussions in the crypto community, as laser eyes are often seen as a sign of a firm bullish stance on Bitcoin, and community members see it as crypto's "cultural output."

Market data shows that Bitcoin leads the crypto market and brings us a "good start" in the Year of the Dragon. BTC, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, broke through US$50,000 in the short term, reaching its highest level since December 2021.

The share prices of crypto-related companies have been soaring. 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 emoticons is. For the crypto market, which operates 24/7, what is most needed is celebrity hype.

Bankless retweeted and hinted at the potential impact on the ETH/BTC trend. The anonymous X account WhalePanda said it was a kind of crypto cultural export. Even Tron founder Justin Sun joined in the speculation, reposting the comment: "Bitcoin?"

Origin of symbols

Franklin Templeton, a 77-year-old asset management firm, is named after 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 Jan. 17. One person cited the “huge potential” of some blockchain networks and posted a meme.

Franklin Templeton is just one company in this cultural wave.

In 2021, since Tesla CEO Elon Musk endorsed Bitcoin under his real name, he has taken on another identity among his multiple roles - Bitcoin evangelist. On February 20, Elon Musk suddenly changed his profile picture to a girl with "laser eyes" with a Bitcoin pattern in the background.

This avatar was originally an image that Musk had used on Twitter before. The focus is not on the Bitcoin logo, but on the pair of red "laser eyes". If you search the topic "#LaserRayUntil100K" on Twitter, you will find that under Musk's leadership, Twitter has become a sea of ​​laser eyes.

MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, CoinShares CEO Meltem Demirors, and even U.S. Senator Cythia Lummis have become participants in this event.

So what do laser eyes mean?

“The 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 light up in a movie.”

As the meme evolves, laser eyes have become inseparable from Bitcoin. On Twitter, many Bitcoin evangelists have been promoting it relentlessly.

Biden's stance on cryptocurrencies

Despite the furore over the laser eye photo, the Biden administration remains cautious about cryptocurrencies.

Biden believes that cryptocurrencies have both potential benefits and 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 instructing government agencies to carefully study the potential benefits and risks of cryptocurrencies, including studying the possibility of creating a U.S. digital central bank currency (CBDC).

The executive order requires the Treasury Department, the Commerce Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other departments to submit a report to Biden on the "future of money" and the role of cryptocurrency therein, explaining how to protect the rights of consumers and investors, ensure financial stability, prevent illegal financial activities, maintain the United States' position in the global financial system and economic competition, and promote inclusive finance.

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 in cryptocurrencies and to promote the United States' leadership in cryptocurrency innovation.

Additionally, nonprofit advocacy group Stand with Crypto lists LaserEye as generally negative on digital assets, based on public statements. This cautious view is consistent with broader regulatory trends, highlighting the complexity of integrating cryptocurrencies into the mainstream financial ecosystem.

While Biden’s Super Bowl post temporarily blurred the line between political messaging and cryptocurrency advocacy, it ultimately served as a reminder of the dynamic interplay between internet culture and political communication.