- Tom Brady just signaled the end of an era for crypto with a quiet change of his Twitter profile photo.
- Brady switched his profile photo from the "laser eyes" meme, which symbolized bullishness in Bitcoin.
Tom Brady just signaled the end of an era for crypto with a quiet change of his Twitter profile photo.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers star quarterback, who has become a high-profile backer of cryptocurrency and NFTs, switched from a photo of himself with glowing eyes on Twitter Monday morning after he likely lost a significant sum of money last week due to FTX's stunning collapse.
Social media profiles with "laser eyes" grew in popularity among cryptocurrency believers last year as a way for them to symbolically show bullishness in crypto, particularly in Bitcoin.
While the meme's origin is unclear, according to CoinTelegraph, many backers initially pledged not to change their photos back until Bitcoin hit $100,000. Bitcoin is currently trading at $16,000, its lowest level in two years, and most original laser eye photos have now disappeared from Twitter.
Brady was one of the final holdouts with a "laser eyes" photo; many noteworthy people quietly switched away from the meme as cryptocurrency prices crashed this year. Paris Hilton, Elon Musk, and even sitting US Senator Cynthia Lummis all sported glowing eyes on Twitter at some point since early 2021, when crypto was surging to all-time highs.
Brady backing away from his public display of crypto confidence comes after he likely took a major financial hit from FTX's bankruptcy filing last week.
In June 2021, Brady and his now ex-wife, Gisele Bündchen, entered into a "long-term partnership" with FTX and revealed that they had invested money in the company. Brady was a public-facing ambassador for FTX and starred in several commercials for the exchange.
Last week, in the span of a few days, FTX went from a company valued at $32 billion to bankruptcy after a surge in customer withdrawals caused the company to face a liquidy crunch. FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried now faces multiple investigations after reports that he and FTX leadership mishandled customer funds.