The wealthiest person in the world is warning that the United States of America is about to become insolvent. Tesla CEO Elon Musk shares an image on the social media platform X showing that the US dollar is devolving into the Zimbabwean dollar – a currency that witnessed rapid devaluation due to excessive money printing. […]
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The recent addition of laser eyes, a feature popular among bitcoin enthusiasts, to Elon Musk’s profile picture has spurred speculation around his potential involvement in the upcoming Bitcoin 2024 Conference to be held in Nashville, Tennessee. According to Eleanor Terrett, a Fox Business journalist, Musk arrived in Tennessee on July 21. She suggested that Musk’s […]
Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady announced on ESPN that he was giving a Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan a bitcoin for returning the star quarterback’s 600th touchdown pass ball. However, experts have said that if the fan kept the ball it possibly could have sold for $500K. Tom Brady Announces Intention to Give Fan a […]
An increasing number of high-profile celebrities have continued to adopt the “laser eye” meme on Twitter in recent months.
Beams of light flashing out of a person’s eyes are not an uncommon sight in the world of comic books and superhero movies. In recent months, however, these so-called “laser eyes” have been making the news, not because of a movie or web series, but because of Bitcoin (BTC).
To be more specific, an increasing number of celebrities, tech entrepreneurs and media personalities have been adding laser eyes to their profile pictures. This is a symbolic way of showcasing their bullish outlook for BTC and the crypto market in general.
While the origin of the meme is unclear, most point toward the suggestion that the idea behind laser eyes, at least upon its inception, was to help spur the flagship cryptocurrency’s value all the way up to the $100,000 mark by the end of 2021. Since then, the meaning of the meme has changed, with it now being a way of showing one’s support for the crypto sector.
Below are some of the biggest names who have recently adopted this trend, increasing the overall visibility of the digital asset industry.
Widely considered to be the greatest football player of all time, Tom Brady has continued to defy time while getting better with each passing year. At his ripe old age of 43, he just won his seventh Super Bowl, showcasing that age is really just a number.
In addition to his amazing sporting pursuits, Brady is also known to be an avid financial investor — something that recently led the legendary quarterback to adopt the laser eyes photo. As soon as he did this, many people claimed that the sports star had become the latest big-name celebrity to acquire a sizable sum of Bitcoin.
It’s also worth noting that this development came less than a day after Blockworks co-founder Jason Yanowitz challenged Brady to update his picture. Just last month, the National Football League star announced he would be backing an all-new NFT platform called Autograph.
As the name seems to quite clearly imply, the project will serve as a marketplace where investors can buy officially licensed digital collectibles backed by some of the biggest names in the world of sports and entertainment.
Michael Saylor has got to be one of the most obvious names on this list. This is because as of May 14, his company MicroStrategy — an enterprise business intelligence application software vendor — has under its possession a total of 91,850 Bitcoins (acquired at an aggregate purchase price of $2.24 billion).
Upon changing his profile photo, Saylor went on to claim that by making the move, he was making his intentions clear that he sees Bitcoin as an instrument of economic empowerment and change. “Laser eyes proclaim a technology to guarantee the human rights of life, liberty and property,” he added.
Before Kim Kardashian came along, Paris Hilton was widely recognized as being the biggest celebrity on planet Earth. However, despite her popularity waning a little over the last decade or so, Hilton, who is an heiress to the Hilton hotel empire, still carries with her approximately 17 million followers on Twitter.
From minting nonfungible tokens to generally being quite active within the crypto sector, Hilton has pushed to become an unexpected flag bearer for this rapidly evolving industry. During the first week of April, she adopted the laser eyes meme as a means of showcasing her growing support for Bitcoin.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk broke many crypto-loving hearts on May 13 when he announced that Tesla would cease accepting Bitcoin for its cars due to the environmental impact from mining. But he was still a part of this bullish crypto trend.
On Feb. 20, Bitcoin was trading at a relatively stable price point of around $51,700, when Musk — aka “Dogefather” — changed his Twitter profile picture to the laser eyes meme, while adding the following note: “Just for a day.”
As expected, within just 48 hours of Musk making this move, the value of Bitcoin started soaring, climbing up to a relative high of around $58,000.
Earlier this year, Tesla announced that the company was going to invest some $1.5 billion into BTC. The result of this news sent shockwaves across the global financial landscape, helping spur the value of BTC from $38,000 to $43,000 within a matter of minutes.
Though criticized for being a bandwagoner when it comes to adopting crypto trends, the first woman to represent Wyoming in the Senate, Senator Cynthia Lummis tweeted in February that she was also going to be adopting the laser eyes photo for a day, showcasing her support for Bitcoin, which she referred to as being a “sound” form of money.
In recent years, Caitlin Long’s crypto resume has become legendary. From leading Wyoming’s Blockchain Task Force between 2018 and 2019 to being named the #8 person of the year in Cointelegraph’s top 100 in 2021, Long is widely considered to be a pioneer within the crypto industry, and the laser eyes on her Twitter profile indicate that she is indeed a believer.
The founders of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, both Tyler and Cameron have been quite vocal about their support for the crypto industry as a whole. The brothers recently changed their profile pictures to ones depicting the laser eyes meme earlier this year, adding more fuel to an already raging fire.
Can this symbolic photo change actually help spur global crypto adoption? Nick Rose, CEO of Ethernity — a digital art marketplace designed to produce authenticated nonfungible tokens — told Cointelegraph that celebrities entering this space is fantastic for the market, adding: “Widespread adoption is still to come. I can’t wait to see the authenticated NFT market in five or even 10 years or more. I have already spoken to Tom Brady’s team — they are onto something.”
Similarly, Antoni Trenchev, managing partner for crypto lending platform Nexo, told Cointelegraph that crypto is currently the place for all major movers and shakers to “see and be seen” — much like how New York City was back in the 1960s, “ungovernable but never boring.”
Nick Spanos, co-founder of Zap Protocol — an open platform for creating, sharing and monetizing deterministic oracles from data feeds — believes that while in the past, crypto may have been viewed by many as being some nerdy, obscure kind of video game money. With more celebrities now endorsing this asset class, it can help in forging a path of financial liberation for many investors, he added: “Game-changing ideas spread today through TikTok, memes and profile photo frames — not just through traditional media on cable TV.”
Though many are hyped about the fact that celebrities and influencers are showcasing their support for the industry with each passing day, Rick Heffernan, head of business development at the Utopia Genesis Foundation — a blockchain-powered music data platform — believes that celebrities dipping their toes in this space should be viewed with a certain degree of caution:
“It’s all product endorsement, which is typically designed to benefit both the product as well as their own platform simultaneously for a certain period of time. Genuine, sincere and long-term support is essential. At the same time, focus should also be placed on encouraging people to educate themselves on how [the] space works before investing.”
By and large, 2021 has been a pivotal year for crypto thanks in large part to all of the attention received by the NFT and decentralized finance markets. According to Heffernan, it now remains to be seen whether adoption will increase at a rapid rate in the near to mid-term, especially as many altcoins are continuing to garner an increasing amount of momentum, taking some of the spotlight away from Bitcoin.
Tom Brady, who is widely known as the greatest quarterback of all time, has hopped on the bitcoin bandwagon. The seven-time Super Bowl champion has added laser eyes to his Twitter profile. Tom Brady Rumored to Be Loading up on Bitcoin Football star Tom Brady has hopped on the bitcoin train. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers […]
The GOAT's Twitter profile picture now shows him with laser eyes.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, arguably one of the most talented American football players of all time, has hinted that he’s a Bitcoiner.
On Monday, Brady changed his Twitter profile picture to one with laser eyes, potentially implying to his 1.9 million followers that he is invested in Bitcoin (BTC). The football star made the change less than a day after Blockworks co-founder Jason Yanowitz challenged him to do so and provided the updated picture.
The crypto asset's price was seemingly unaffected by the NFL player's pseudo-announcement. At the time of publication, BTC's price is $57,500, having risen 8% in the last seven days. However, players in the crypto space including MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor and Anthony Pompliano both acknowledged Brady's presumed entry as a Bitcoiner.
The seven-time Super Bowl champion announced in April that he would be backing a new nonfungible token, or NFT, platform called Autograph. The marketplace aims to provide a tool for digital collectibles and will feature big names in sports and entertainment.
At the time of publication, Brady’s representatives have not provided any comments regarding his Bitcoin holdings.
Bitcoin has corrected 17% so far and could have further to go. But it should be OK.
Veteran trader and chart guru Peter Brandt has made a cheeky correlation between the current Bitcoin market correction and the prevalence of ‘laser eyes’ on Twitter.
In a tweet on April 18, the technical analyst tied the correction to irrational exuberance in markets as exemplified by the meme:
“The chances of a correction in cryptos is directly related to the prevalence of laser eyes on Twitter. Want the correction to end? Get rid of your laser eyes.”
The laser eyes meme that initially swept across crypto social media in February 2021 saw crypto influencers, industry leaders, and regular users change their Twitter profile pictures to include laser eyes. The fad was to signify support for Bitcoin’s price surging until it hit $100K.
Coincidentally, it also roughly coincided with a local top for Bitcoin prices which reached $57,800 on Feb. 21 before correcting 25% to bottom out at $43,500 a week later.
In this week’s dip Bitcoin has corrected from its recent all-time high of $64,600 on April 14 to current prices of $53,600 — a move of 17% at the time of writing.
However Brandt’s actually not all that concerned about the pullback. Brandt’s draw down figures put the current correction closer to 20% which he claims is “very mild historically”. In an April 20 tweet he said there is a strong history of Bitcoin bull trends to test the 18 week moving average which was at $46,615 at the time. This would entail a much larger correction of around 28%.
Draw-down in Bitcoin of 20.0% to date is very mild historically.
— Peter Brandt (@PeterLBrandt) April 19, 2021
There is a strong history of $BTC bull trends to test the 18 week MA (currently at 46,615).
I personally doubt such a retest will occur, but Bitcoin has a history of pulling surprises. pic.twitter.com/lyfXlgpAHK
The average correction magnitude from the past 14 retracements is around 35% according to Brandt’s data. A fall to this level would send BTC prices tumbling back to $42,000.
Other analysts have also pointed to the historical record as a reason not to worry. ‘Rekt Capital’ tweeted that the February dip was three times deeper than this week's dip:
In February, Altcoin Market Cap retraced -21%
— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) April 21, 2021
Then Altcoin Market Cap rallied +90% afterwards
Now Altcoin Market Cap is down -7% from its All Time Highs
The February dip was three times deeper than this one
People called for a new Bear Market in February too#Crypto
Brandt explained his 'laser eyes' theory in interview with crypto researcher Laura Shin on April 13, stating that over-enthusiasm in any market is always a warning sign:
“The more people put the laser eyes, you know at least the market’s going to get choppy for a while and stop going straight up… When people start pounding their chest in public, ‘I own Bitcoin. I own Bitcoin. Look at me. I have laser eyes.’ That’s always going to be a sign that the market is at least going to take a rest.”
At the time of writing, BTC is trading down 5% over the past 24 hours at $53,600.
Paris Hilton says she is “very, very excited” about bitcoin, stating that “It’s definitely the future.” Besides confirming that she is a long-term bitcoin investor, the Hilton heiress put laser eyes on her social media profile picture and talked about her upcoming non-fungible token (NFT) projects. Paris Hilton Says Bitcoin Is ‘Definitely the Future’ Hilton […]
A tweet with a Bitcoin hashtag from the British television series has piqued the interest of many in the crypto space.
The Teletubbies, a British children's television series that has been on the air since 1997, is showing signs its loveable characters may become the newest entrants to the crypto space.
Today the official Teletubbies Twitter account posted a message with the Bitcoin (BTC) hashtag, saying the characters were “possibly hiding” something from viewers. Two of the characters — Tinky Winky, known for his purple color, and Po, for her red — appear with laser eyes next to a giant question mark.
Eh-Oh...what could the Teletubbies be possibly hiding from us? Stay tuned for something BIG this week. #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/fJ2NBXsENx
— Teletubbies (@TeletubbiesHQ) March 31, 2021
Modifying profile pictures to include laser eyes has become somewhat popular among prominent members of the crypto space as a symbol of adoption and general bullish sentiment. However, this typically comes from adults, not the children aged one to four target audience for Teletubbies.
Though some youths are willing and eager participants in promoting crypto, the demographic for the Teletubbies’ audience has some questioning if the tweet isn’t a set up for an April Fools’ Day joke tomorrow. Already Twitter users have jumped on the message with crypto-themed puns, pitching names for the characters that more readily fit the space:
Tether-Winky
— Cred (@CryptoCred) March 31, 2021
Buy the Dipsy
Laa Laa
Poor https://t.co/wwPIM0Ikli
The announcement comes as the show celebrates its 24th anniversary. Though if it’s unclear if the Teletubbies plans to prank its 14,500 Twitter followers tomorrow with the release of a fake non-fungible token, there is always the possibility the show could be considering educating young children about cryptocurrency. Three-year-old Lily Knight went semiviral in the crypto space last month after releasing a video explaining the limited supply of Bitcoin using Skittles candy, and Elon Musk has said his 10-month-old son is a Dogecoin (DOGE) HODLer.
“If Teletubbies start teaching kids about Bitcoin then the banks are really f**ked,” said Twitter user DeepBlueCrypto.
