Deciphering: Why does Musk's Bitcoin "Moe" have glowing red eyes?

Tesla founder Elon Musk has changed his Twitter profile picture again, this time to an anime girl with glowing red eyes. He said, "Just one day," and "I just want to ignite the flame in your heart."

Within the first six hours of Musk's post, MicroStrategy completed a convertible bond fundraising of $1.05 billion, and Bitcoin once again hit a new high, with a market value exceeding $1 trillion. Musk often posts casually on social media; the last time he even put a Bitcoin logo in his Twitter bio, so let's not speculate on the intention behind his profile picture change.

However, let's decrypt where this "anime girl" with "glowing red eyes" actually comes from.

Advertisement - Scroll down for more

I just want to start a flame in your heart

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 19, 2021

Decryption One: Anime Girl as Bitcoin Mascot

Investigation reveals that the image of this cute girl comes from a website in Japan called "クリプトカレンシーガールズ" (Cryptocurrency Girls), which mainly serves as a blog introducing cryptocurrency knowledge and exchanges. This cute girl is named "ビットコインちゃん" (Bitcoin-chan), one of the female characters personifying various cryptocurrencies.

Her profile states: "An idol in the cryptocurrency city with many fans worldwide. There is a possibility of her splitting into twins." Her occupation is an idol, and she loves singing karaoke.

She even has various merchandise:

If you are interested, you can also see what "Ethereum-chan" looks like:

Decryption Two: The Meaning Behind the Red Glowing Eyes

Red glowing eyes have appeared on the Twitter avatars of many cryptocurrency supporters:

1. Wyoming Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis

2. Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, a company aggressively buying Bitcoin

3. Samson Mow, Chief Strategy Officer of Bitcoin technology company Blockstream

Others with red eyes include Neeraj Agrawal from Coin Center and Meltem Demirors from CoinShares. What does this signify?

According to an interview by Decrypt with Neeraj Agrawal, he mentioned that it represents a conveyance of momentum and increasing energy, much like when a character's eyes light up in a movie.

According to the website "Know Your Meme," the explanation is:

"'Glowing Eyes' is an image macro in which the eyes of various people, characters, and animals are edited to appear as if they are glowing with bright energy, mimicking a common trope found in animated films and television shows."

It is said to have originated from a 2010 game: Mass Effect 2, where an enemy named Harbinger could "possess" smaller enemy units, and people began using lines from the game as memes.

Over time, this meme was applied in various contexts, signifying energy, being in a super state, or even infected with the Ebola virus during its outbreak, becoming a widespread meme.

Even Binance founder CZ hopped on the trend with glowing eyes: