Biden’s “Laser Eyes”: The U.S. Government’s Attitude Towards Crypto Community Culture

Bitcoin conquered Biden. Biden hopes to indirectly get young Bitcoin audiences to vote for him through the "Dark Braden Laser Eyes". The Bitcoin market will naturally respond. In the early morning of February 13, Bitcoin broke through the $50,000 mark. It reached a high of $50,363, a 24-hour increase of 3.53%. It hit a 2-year high. Although the reasons behind the surge in Bitcoin are Bitcoin ETF, the Fed's interest rate cut expectations and halving. But as the President of the United States, some of Biden's actions will have a significant impact on Bitcoin.

On February 12, US President Biden posted a photo of a "Dark Brandon Laser Eyes" emoticon on social media X (as shown in the attached picture). After two days of public opinion fermentation, it triggered widespread attention, speculation and discussion in the crypto, sports, political and even entertainment circles.

Why is Biden called "Dark Brandon"? This is a pseudonym for Biden on the Internet. It was created two years ago. The pseudonym originated from the right-wing forces' shouting of "Fxxx Biden", which was explained by an NBC sports reporter interviewing NASCAR driver Brandon Brown as "Go, Brandon!". In the end, radicals believed that the clumsy Biden was actually an evil mastermind, so progressives created the character of "Dark Brandon", and this laser-eyed Biden is the worst nightmare of every MAGA (political slogan promoted by Trump) supporter.

Maybe it was a careful plan, maybe it was a coincidence. In short, Biden hopes to use the Super Bowl and Bitcoin to attract the attention of a wide range of young audiences in the American sports circle, crypto circle, and even other circles to win their votes and support his campaign for the next US president. Both TikTok and X are important network forces to connect with young voters. This "Dark Braden Laser Eyes" can be said to be a campaign declaration for young voters, or a self-redefinition for young voters. Through these two methods, let the millennials and Generation Z living on the Internet re-recognize their new identities and hope to gain their recognition.

Why is it carefully planned? We combed through the content of Biden's first official video released on Tiktok, combined with the time when the Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl finals, and even the "Dark Brandon" emoji photo released by Biden's team on social media. Whether it is the logic of the content before and after, or the time selection, it is a perfect match.

For example, before the Super Bowl, Biden posted a campaign video on his official Tiktok account, commenting on a series of issues related to the Super Bowl.

In the video, Biden did not say whether he preferred the Chiefs or the San Francisco 49ers, but said, "If I didn't say I support the Philadelphia Eagles, then I would sleep alone. Because my wife is a Philadelphia girl." Biden also answered another question, "Is this football season a carefully planned and manipulated season to get the Chiefs to the Super Bowl, or are the Chiefs just a good football team? Biden said, "If I tell you, I will get in trouble." The camera then switched to the "Dark Brandon Laser Eye" camera.

Finally, in the Super Bowl final, after the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers, Biden responded by posting a photo of himself with a "dark Brandon laser eye" emoji on social media X, saying, "Just like we drew it." From the timing and content logic, it can be seen that it was a series of careful planning arranged by the Biden campaign team.

According to Molly Roberts, a columnist for The Washington Post, President Biden's tweet alludes to the latest fantasy of paranoid Trumpists. The romance between the famous singer Swift and Chiefs tight end Kelce on Page Six is ​​not love after all, but a psychological warfare by the Pentagon to attract people's attention to the couple and endorse Biden's re-election. Use this absurd statement to make the base laugh. The same is true for the accompanying TikTok, which is Biden's first entry into the platform and has been viewed more than 7 million times.

Conspiracy theories surrounding the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl victory, Taylor Swift and the Democratic Party have gained momentum in recent weeks amid reports that Biden is seeking the pop star's endorsement for his re-election campaign in November, CBS reported.

Why is it a coincidence? Biden's "Dark Brandon Laser Eyes" emoji photo is not so much a support for the Chiefs to beat the San Francisco 49ers to win the championship, but rather an indirect support for the culture of the crypto community to some extent. This laser eye emoji once meant a firm belief in the crypto community's narrative context in 2021 that Bitcoin will eventually rise to $100,000 in the bull market and set a record high.

So why the laser eyes emoji and not some other emoji? According to the website Know Your Meme, characters with glowing eyes have been widely used as memes since the release of the video game Mass Effect 2 in 2010. In the game, when an enemy is controlled by another entity, their eyes glow yellow. Then people used Photoshop technology to add the title "Control Taken", and a meme was born. As the subsequent meme continued to evolve, the relationship between laser eyes and Bitcoin has become inseparable.

The Bitcoin meme movement has attracted well-known entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk, Michael Saylor, computer scientist Nick Szabo, and even SEC member Cythia Lummis to actively participate in it. At that time, a laser eye craze was triggered in the crypto community. Looking at the entire Twitter square and information flow, all laser eye avatars came into view. Even this crypto community cultural craze has spread to the domestic WeChat Moments. It can be said that it has attracted widespread participation from the global crypto community audience, especially the young group.

In the context of American electoral politics, choosing what to post is often a question of how to post it, whether you are willing to devalue yourself and try to appear "up to date" or stick with more propaganda language. In a way, Dark Brandon's laser eyes show how culture is formed on the Internet, which is often a cultural phenomenon formed from the bottom up by people with similar interests.

Biden's "Dark Braden Laser Eyes" campaign reminds me of the remarks made by Bitcoin fanatics, Argentine President Milley and Salvadoran President Bukele in support of Bitcoin. To some extent, all three of them wanted to stand on the side of the Bitcoin audience and let the young Bitcoin audience vote for them before winning the presidency.

Whether Milley was running for president or writing and speaking on Austrian economics, he wisely stood on the side of the Bitcoin audience. For example, he once threatened that "Bitcoin can eliminate the central bank" and even "blow up the central bank of the country" and used the US dollar as the national currency. Looking back, this radical statement may have helped him to some extent, not only helping him to win the votes of the Bitcoin audience, but also winning him wide praise from the global Bitcoin community audience.

On February 4, 42-year-old Salvadoran President Bukele won re-election. His greatest contribution to Bitcoin was to define Bitcoin as the country's legal tender. Forbes said that Bukele's re-election victory "is not only a political victory, but also an affirmation that the country is adopting Bitcoin." Re-election provides him with a mandate to further advance his Bitcoin-centric vision, potentially setting a precedent for other countries considering a similar path. The results of these policies are likely to affect global regulations and the adoption of digital currencies in other countries.

If it weren’t for the presidential election, I think Biden wouldn’t have opened a Tiktok account, nor would he have posted “Dark Brandon Laser Eyes” on social media, triggering so much speculation and discussion in the American public opinion circle. More importantly, it wouldn’t have had a profound and significant impact on the price of Bitcoin.

But this behavior itself shows that Biden is promoting Bitcoin for his own presidential campaign, rather than running for president in order to support Bitcoin.

It should be noted that Biden's other real-life ruling identity is neutral or opposed to Bitcoin. In March 2022, the Biden administration signed an executive order. It criticized many aspects of the digital asset industry and pointed out that it could pose a danger to the US economy.

On August 25, 2023, the Biden administration announced new cryptocurrency tax reporting rules. According to the proposed rules released by the U.S. Treasury Department, crypto brokers, including exchanges and payment processors, must report new information about users' sales and transactions of digital assets to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The rules are part of a broader push by Congress and regulators to crack down on cryptocurrency users who may fail to pay taxes. These rules will take effect for brokers in 2025 during the 2026 tax season.

On January 31, 2024, the Biden administration announced measures to address excessive energy consumption in cryptocurrency production and launched the collection of electricity consumption data for Bitcoin mining operations in the United States. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is required to conduct a comprehensive survey of electricity consumption by specific commercial cryptocurrency mining companies in the United States. They must provide detailed information on their operational energy use, which is a key step in achieving much-needed transparency and accountability in the cryptocurrency industry.

Despite the current administration's harsh stance on the crypto industry. According to Bloomberg, SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci advised the crypto community to support President Biden instead of Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. He said that while the Trump administration would be more favorable to crypto regulation in the short term, "in the long run, he will create chaos and unpredictability in the legal system."

We hope that Biden will stand on the side of Bitcoin audiences wisely, just like Milley and Bukele, whether he wins or loses the election in the future.