Encryption produces gibberish string

$this->config    = new \Config\Encryption();
$this->encrypter = \Config\Services::encrypter($this->config); 
$ciphertext =  $this->encrypter->encrypt(base64_encode($text));

When I echo $ciphertext, I get some gibberish text(see below). Ideally, I am saving this value in the database. Is this normal?

�wD�yL��'T�Z��Oq�J��H1�b���~��x��q���a��A=�8���d�/�Ȍ�$�T����"��F�����Ѝ��5%�T;"