Max Keiser, ‘Crypto Willy Wonka,’ Is Ready To Seize The Moment At Bitcoin 2023

Max Keiser, who now works in El Salvador’s National Bitcoin Office, discusses his upcoming appearance at the Bitcoin 2023 conference.

Even among hundreds of speakers, unique activations and viral moments, Max Keiser has become a can’t-miss aspect of the Bitcoin Conference event series. During Bitcoin 2019, he emphatically ripped up a $10 bill for CNBC Africa, he was labeled “crypto Willy Wonka” on the “Daily Show” following his energetic appearance at Bitcoin 2021 and he set a probable record for on-stage f-bombs during the “F*ck You Money” panel at Bitcoin 2022.

Keiser’s unique stage presence might seem improvised, but a media career that has spanned decades and produced television content for the BBC, Al-Jazeera and RT alongside his wife and business partner Stacy Herbert indicates that he knows what he’s doing. As does his current mission with Herbert, working alongside El Salvador President Nayib Bukele to make one of the Bitcoin Conference’s most promising announcements an effective reality for millions: In November 2022, Bukele announced that the two would help establish the country’s National Bitcoin Office.

“You know in ‘Star Wars,’ when they jump to hyperspace? That’s what’s happening in El Salvador,” Keiser explained in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine. “Bitcoin plus Bukele, with some help from Max and Stacy, has catapulted the country into becoming Bitcoin Maximalist Country.”

Keiser is quick to note that Bukele, who “is everywhere and pushing everything forward 24/7” is “almost impossible” to keep up with, but he evangelizes the president’s country with equal vigor.

“El Salvador is the ark,” Keiser said. “All are welcome while there’s still room. I expect the airport to be packed with fiat money refugees soon. Give us your tired, your weary, your banked-to-death poor, huddling in the casino gulag.”

This anti-central-banking message, which Keiser has been sharing in some form or another throughout much of his career, seems particularly prescient in the run up to Bitcoin 2023, given the ongoing banking crisis and accompanying bitcoin price surge. For someone who has been preaching about the inequalities of fiat banking for so long, the current climate is coming as little surprise.

“I read the news about how banks are collapsing and I feel nothing,” Keiser recalled. “The current collapse is no surprise, of course. In 2008, there was a catastrophic global credit freeze; the financialized, post-WWII economy effectively died; and the financial taxidermists and bankers moved in to stuff it with lots of new, worthless fiat money. And now, in 2023, the stuffed, dead moose has caught fire and the whole global house of deceit and unpayable financial claims is a bonfire of epic proportions visible from other galaxies.”

It all seems like the perfect recipe for yet another unforgettable on-stage moment for Keiser at Bitcoin 2023. But if you were looking for some details as to how he will attempt to grab headlines again this year, you’ll have to be content to wait until May, just like everyone else.

“I plan to channel Satoshi live on stage, as always,” he teased. “I only speak the truth. I am bound by the protocol and the power vested in me as the Bishop of Bitcoin to elevate the masses and mass orange pill them whenever possible.”