Bitcoin price has been an uptrend for a full year now, taking the price of the cryptocurrency from under $4,000 to well over $50,000 at the current peak. With analysts calling for a top closer to $100,000 or much higher, it is hard to be bearish on the top crypto asset currently. However, an iconic trader with extensive experience in markets says there’s one overwhelmingly bearish factor in Bitcoin, and its not what you would expect.

The reason isn’t a fundamental factor, or an overheated technical indicator – it is “laser eyes.” But why?

Bitcoin is booming, bringing in retail participants once again, but this time around has also managed to finally attract institutional investors. The impact the high wealth investor class has had on price appreciation has been dramatic, resulting in an over 1000% climb in a year’s time.

Outflows from top cryptocurrency exchanges top over 10,000 BTC per week and have yet to subside even though price action has recently taken a pause. On-chain metrics and technicals both appear to support a sustained uptrend for a while longer, yet a career commodities trader that has accurately predicted major Bitcoin trend changes in the past, is calling attention to what they say is the “single most bearish factor” plaguing the cryptocurrency currently: laser eyes.

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Laser eyes is a meme that’s recently made its way across crypto Twitter, involving users updating avatars to include red lasers for eyes. The trend has been joined by the likes of Elon Musk, Anthony Scaramucci, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, and even members of Congress.

But why exactly is Peter Brandt so bothered by the meme culture spreading across crypto currently? He says it is not only “obnoxious,” but “it is stupid” and if supporters want Bitcoin to be taken seriously, the community should stop acting like “children.”

Brandt’s statement echoes the sentiments of Black Swan author Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who bashed the investor category as “sociopaths with the sophistication of amoebas.” While that is an extreme claim, what has also been extreme has been the exuberance in the market.

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Brandt continues that “unbridled enthusiasm” and “FOMO buying usually” typically result in a deep or long correction. Bitcoin has been on a parabolic rise since March of last year, and March is historically the worst month on record in the cryptocurrency market.

In the past, Brandt actually called the bottom range months in advance following a breakdown of Bitcoin’s parabola. When a parabolic advance is broken, the trader says, the asset typically declines by around 80%.

Past Bitcoin bear markets have been characterized by a drop that far. Could that be what’s ahead in Bitcoin with exuberance reaching extremes such as memes and laser eyes?

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