Max Keiser

In the 1980s he worked part-time as a stockbroker at Paine Webber; by 1997 he had spent eight years trading stocks on Wall Street. The Bitcoin Amsterdam 2023 speaker page describes him as a former stockbroker and options trader.⁠[1][2][3]

He and the former trader Michael Burns co-founded the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX), developing and launching the site for $300,000. They originally intended a real-money exchange based on box office performance; after learning how much time, money and trouble trading approval from the Commodity Futures Trading CommissionCommodity Futures Trading CommissionThe U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is an independent federal agency created by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Act of 1974 and operating since 1975 to regulate futures, options and swaps markets; it has treated bitcoin and other virtual currencies as commodities since 2015 and has been chaired since December 22, 2025 by Michael Selig.Open the full entry would take, they kept it as a “virtual market.”⁠[4]

He said HSX raised $40 million in private investment from 1996 to 1998. An employee who joined in 1999 said the staff totaled around 40, mostly working in a Santa Monica office, with a few in a New York bureau. Connected to the actor Alec Baldwin through his New York home base, he initially tried to bring Baldwin in as a partner; the article quotes the plan to call the site “Alec Baldwin’s Hollywood Stock Exchange.”⁠[4]

On March 25, 1996, under his full name Timothy Maxwell Keiser, he and Michael R. Burns filed a U.S.United StatesThe United States is a federal country in North America made up of 50 states, the District of Columbia as the seat of government, and territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam; its capital is Washington, D.C. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted a resident population of 331,449,281, and the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of the census.Open the full entry patent application (No. 08/620,906); on the same day both assigned their interest to HSX, Inc.⁠[5]

In March 1997 he presented the site as HSX’s president and chief executive, with Michael Burns as chairman; he had moved to Hollywood with Burns, and the two designed the framework of the site’s game. The free game let players trade movies and their stars like stocks and bonds; each new player started with $2 million in Hollywood Stock Exchange money, movie prices tracked worldwide box office grosses, and the “wealthiest” players won prizes at the end of each quarter and other set periods. The site then had 20,000 players from 30 countries.⁠[2]

The site also planned to let backers invest as little as $50 in films chosen from script synopses, follow their production and vote on issues; its first major project was Atomic Highway, a film starring Jason London. He said, “Entertainment has always been thrust upon you,” and that on the Internet ideas could take shape “without going through a political Cuisinart.”⁠[2]

On November 2, 1998, he and Burns filed a continuation-in-part of application No. 08/620,906 (No. 09/184,571); it was granted on January 7, 2003, as U.S. Patent No. 6,505,174, “Computer-implemented securities trading system with a virtual specialist function,” with HSX Inc as original assignee. Its description refers to “HOLLYWOOD DOLLARS” and virtual dollars.⁠[6]

On August 25, 1999, he and Burns filed application No. 09/382,907, claiming priority from the applications of March 25, 1996, and November 2, 1998; it was granted on February 3, 2009, as U.S. Patent No. 7,487,123, “Computer-implemented securities trading system with virtual currency and virtual specialist.” The corresponding international application PCT/US1999/025793 (WO2000026745A2) and a European application were filed on November 2, 1999, and on November 12, 1999, the two assigned their interest to HSX, Inc.⁠[7]

The virtual currency the patent describes is the “Hollywood dollar” (H$), used to trade derivative financial instruments representing movies, talent, CDs and television programs on the computer-implemented Hollywood Stock Exchange. The currency is controlled by a “virtual reserve bank” program, and the initial portfolio of registered HSX account holders may include H$2 million in cash; the abstract states that accumulated virtual currency may be converted to another currency or credited toward the cost of merchandise from a vendor’s website, and the description states that holders can convert their cash to “real” currency through a currency exchange website. Google Patents lists the patent as “Expired - Fee Related” with an adjusted expiration of January 29, 2021, noting that the legal status is an assumption.⁠[7]

On September 7, 1999, the 1996 application was granted as U.S. Patent No. 5,950,176, “Computer-implemented securities trading system with a virtual specialist function,” naming Timothy Maxwell Keiser and Michael R. Burns as inventors and HSX Inc as original assignee. The abstract states, “A server computer receives buy and sell orders for derivative financial instruments from a plurality of client computers”; the system matches the orders and sets a market price through a “virtual specialist” program that responds to order imbalances.⁠[5]

Claim 1 covers a computerized method of regulating an instrument’s market price: measuring the gap between buy and sell orders over a period, projecting a price movement from that gap, setting a market price, and automatically generating additional buy or sell orders at that price when the projected movement meets or exceeds a set threshold. Google Patents lists the patent as “Expired - Lifetime” with an anticipated expiration of March 25, 2016 (stated as an assumption) and shows 357 documents that cite it.⁠[5]

On December 17, 1999, he and Burns filed application No. 09/465,607, a continuation of application No. 09/184,571; it was granted on June 17, 2014, as U.S. Patent No. 8,756,142, “Computer-implemented securities trading system.” The abstract begins, “A computer-implemented financial management system provides the trading of securities via a network using virtual currency,” and states that virtual currency accumulated through successful trading may be converted to another currency or credited toward merchandise; claim 6 specifies Hollywood dollars as the virtual currency. Google Patents lists the patent as “Expired - Fee Related” with an adjusted expiration of March 25, 2021 (stated as an assumption).⁠[8]

In 2001 Cantor FitzgeraldCantor FitzgeraldCantor Fitzgerald is a New York-based financial services group that includes the investment bank and primary dealer Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. and controls the brokerage and financial technology company BGC Group and the commercial real estate services company Newmark Group; it lost 658 employees in the September 11, 2001 attacks, has been run since 2025 by Brandon Lutnick, son of Howard Lutnick, and has faced questions from members of Congress over its role as custodian of the reserves of the stablecoin issuer Tether and its stake in Tether.Open the full entry bought HSX; he strongly opposed the sale, claiming that Cantor badly mistreated HSX shareholders.⁠[4][1]

The assignments listed on Google Patents are: on February 16, 2001, HSX Holdings, Inc. assigned its interest to SBS Broadcasting SA; on August 10, 2001, to Hollywood Stock Exchange, LLC; in September 2001 Hollywood Stock Exchange, L.L.C. assigned it to CFPH, L.L.C.; and on July 19, 2004, SBS Broadcasting SA released its security interest.⁠[5][8]

In December 2004, speaking from London, he presented Karmabanque: participants registered at karmabanque.com to join a boycott of The Coca-Cola CompanyThe Coca-Cola CompanyThe Coca-Cola Company is an Atlanta-based beverage company whose products are sold in more than 200 countries and territories. It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.Open the full entry, while an accompanying hedge fund shorted the company’s shares, and the more people registered, the more money would go into the fund. The fund was set up with the British environmental magazine The Ecologist, was limited to 99 high-net-worth investors, and planned to give its profits to people harmed by Coca-Cola, which he said meant people in Colombia who had fallen foul of Coca-Cola’s anti-union activity and local farmers in India whose water supplies the company was tapping.⁠[9]

He proposed a “boycott vulnerability ratio” (market capitalisation divided by sales) and said Coca-Cola was chosen because it was trading near its year low and was vulnerable to a boycott, whereas ExxonMobilExxonMobilExxonMobil is a U.S. integrated energy and petrochemical company whose business covers oil and gas exploration and production, fuels and chemicals manufacturing, and lower-emission technologies such as carbon capture. The group was formed by the 1999 merger of Exxon and Mobil, and after a 2026 reorganization its listed parent company is ExxonMobil Holdings Corporation.Open the full entry, which many people would like to attack, was not vulnerable to a boycott. He said, “We are not anti-capitalist. We are anti-imperialist and anti-monopolist.”⁠[9]

He later said Karmabanque started in the early 2000s, with Stacy Herbert as its “Chief Anarchy Officer”; one of its campaigns aimed to drive Coca-Cola shares from $41 to $22.⁠[10]

In “Peaked,” an episode of Al JazeeraAl JazeeraAl Jazeera is a news media network headquartered in Doha, Qatar, founded by Sheikh Hamad ibn Khalifa Al Thani, emir of Qatar.Open the full entry English’s documentary strand People & Power aired on January 6, 2008, he examined whether global oil output had stalled at about 85 million barrels a day because production had peaked, and whether the effects of a sharp decline could be mitigated. In “Savers vs speculators,” published on March 23, 2008, he spoke to striking British police officers, consumers and pensioners about whether government and central bank remedies were penalising workers and savers.⁠[11][12]

From 2008 he was an analyst contributor at Seeking Alpha; the site’s author biography calls him a financial journalist, entrepreneur, founder of PirateMyFilm, inventor and documentary filmmaker, and states that he created the Hollywood Stock Exchange, KarmaBanque and GulagWealthFund.⁠[13]

During the 2008 crisis he came to Ireland, lobbied for bankers to be held accountable, and did a show with Pat Kenny criticising Irish bankers; he said he had been coming to Ireland for years.⁠[10]

From 2009 he and Stacy Herbert co-hosted the financial analysis programme Keiser Report on the Russian state network RT; each episode ran 30 minutes, three times a week.⁠[14][15]

Village Magazine wrote in 2018 that the show covered heterodox economics theories and “Financial War Reports.”⁠[10]

A 2018 Bitcoin Magazine article describes Keiser Report as an early pioneer of Bitcoin reporting, with its first coverage of the topic dating back to 2011. In a 2020 interview he said he heard about Bitcoin in 2011 and started accumulating it at $1 at the time; Village Magazine writes that he became a Bitcoin “evangelist” in 2011.⁠[16][17][10]

The Bitcoin Amsterdam 2023 speaker page states that he spoke at the first Bitcoin conference in 2011 and has promoted Bitcoin since then as the movement’s “high priest.” A 2024 Bitcoin Magazine article writes instead that he and Herbert discovered Bitcoin in 2010 and soon became among its earliest public advocates.⁠[3][18]

In a 2013 broadcast he claimed to have become a “bitcoin millionaire” when bitcoin was just above $40, and predicted the demise of the U.S. dollar.⁠[14]

On November 1, 2013, he appeared in a primetime broadcast of the BBCBBCThe BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is the United Kingdom’s public broadcaster. Its predecessor was the British Broadcasting Company, formed in 1922, and since 1927 it has been established under a Royal Charter. It provides television, radio, and online services in the UK, is funded mainly by the television licence fee, and broadcasts worldwide in multiple languages through BBC World Service.Open the full entry satirical news show Have I Got News for You, watched by 7 million people. Asked to explain Bitcoin in plain terms, he described it as an electronic currency not backed by any state: “It’s an electronic currency that’s used exactly like money.” The International Business Times writes that the price rose about $30 from roughly $210 per coin over the following three days.⁠[1]

In 2013 he also said that when the banking system in Cyprus started to collapse, Bitcoin adoption “skyrocketed,” and that the same happened in Greece and in Venezuela.⁠[1]

In a CryptoPotato interview published on July 10, 2020, he said he “invented digital scarcity and commercial prediction markets in 1996” and that “BTC does what my patent does, but with incredible elegance.” He called Bitcoin “the Mona Lisa of money” and “a life raft that can take in anyone who wants to escape the fiat implosion.”⁠[17]

Village Magazine wrote in 2018 that he created the first commercial prediction market and a patented virtual trading currency and securities market, the Hollywood Stock Exchange.⁠[10]

In 2021, the year President Nayib Bukele adopted bitcoin as a national currency of El Salvador, he and Herbert first visited the country, and they moved there in the latter part of 2021. Bitcoin Magazine writes that after the crypto collapses of 2022 the two had to explain to Salvadorans that Bitcoin was not dead.⁠[14][18]

In mid-2021, during El Salvador’s talks with the International Monetary FundInternational Monetary FundThe International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international financial institution conceived at the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, whose Articles entered into force in 1945 and which began operations on March 1, 1947; headquartered in Washington, it has 191 member countries and has been led by Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva since October 2019.Open the full entry for a $1.3 billion loan, he tweeted that “#Bitcoiners” could arrange a $1 billion stop-gap lending facility for El Salvador. Bukele has said that Keiser inspired his administration to issue government debt linked to bitcoin; the Bitcoin Amsterdam 2023 speaker page likewise states that by 2021 Bukele credited him with inspiring El Salvador’s volcano bond.⁠[14][3]

A 2023 article in The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal is a U.S. news publication founded in 1889, with a focus on business, finance and economics. It is published by Dow Jones, part of News Corp.Open the full entry writes that he and Herbert were founding backers of a crypto exchange that helps manage the Volcano Token bond, which is backed by proceeds from bitcoin mined with geothermal power; one person familiar with their work said he brought Bitfinex on as fintech provider for the planned $1 billion Volcano Token offering.⁠[14]

The most recent episode of Keiser Report aired on February 24, 2022, the day Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would ban the Russian state-owned outlets Sputnik and RT, which carried the show; late on February 28 he and Herbert announced on Twitter that they had quit. Answering viewers’ questions, he wrote, “Yep, we quit on Feb. 24 when the bombs dropped,” adding that they had informed the show’s producer, the Associated PressAssociated PressThe Associated Press is a cooperative news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it is the oldest and largest news agency in the United States.Open the full entry, that they were out. Herbert also wrote in a tweet that they ended the show after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.⁠[15][14]

A column by Ricardo Valencia in El Faro writes that Bukele created the National Bitcoin Office by an executive decree dated November 17, requiring all executive branch offices to collaborate with it, and describes the office as headed by him and Herbert; Gerson Martínez, one of the office’s spokespersons, said the office reports directly to Bukele. El Diario de Hoy writes that the decree creating the office was issued in November 2022, that the office acts under the president’s guidelines and that Bukele appoints its director; Bitcoin Magazine writes that the office was founded in December 2022.⁠[19][20][18]

A March 2023 Protos article writes that in November 2022 Bukele ordered executive branch offices to work with him and Herbert on Bitcoin matters and that the two gained authority to open El Salvador-backed Bitcoin embassies in Europe and the United States; the article judges that the new office could “dilute the power of El Salvador’s Foreign Ministry.” The El Faro column likewise writes that the two were granted the ability to open “Bitcoin embassies” in Europe and the United States.⁠[21][19]

In February 2023, when Salvadoran Ambassador Milena Mayorga met Assistant Secretary of State Joe Esparza in TexasTexasTexas is a U.S. state in the south-central United States, with its capital at Austin and its largest city Houston. It was admitted to the Union on December 29, 1845, as the 28th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 29,145,505 residents.Open the full entry, he was in her delegation, identified as an “advisor” to Bukele. El Diario de Hoy writes that a video released by the Presidential Press Secretariat on February 9 showed him serving as President Bukele’s chief adviser on all Bitcoin matters in the country.⁠[19][20]

On March 28, 2023, The Wall Street Journal published an article by Santiago Pérez calling him and Herbert “Two New Yorkers” and writing that he is a senior adviser to President Bukele, a role confirmed by people familiar with his work, while Herbert has been introduced as head of the National Bitcoin Office. He said, “We don’t get remunerated in any way.”⁠[14]

The article writes that their fund, El Zonte Capital, aims to invest up to $10 million in Salvadoran Bitcoin startups, its first investment being the Bitcoin financial software developer Galoy; Bitfinex said it transferred more than $1 million in bitcoin to the couple for donations to Salvadorans affected by gang violence; and S&P GlobalS&P GlobalS&P Global Inc. is a financial information company listed on the New York Stock Exchange that provides credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics and workflow solutions for global capital and commodity markets. Its divisions include S&P Global Ratings and S&P Dow Jones Indices.Open the full entry Market Intelligence data show that their company Heisenberg Capital invested in Bitfinex’s parent company. It adds that the two have almost 700,000 social media followers and advocate Bukele’s policies there.⁠[14]

El Diario de Hoy pointed out on April 1, 2023, that the government had made no announcement of the appointments, that the National Bitcoin Office had no official website naming its head, and that the couple’s statement that they receive no pay could not be verified because of the government’s lack of transparency; Ricardo Valencia’s column judges that it is unclear how the office is funded or whether the two are paid with public money, while spokesperson Gerson Martínez has denied receiving any compensation himself.⁠[20][19]

In May 2023 Saifedean AmmousSaifedean AmmousSaifedean Ammous is a Palestinian-born Austrian-school economist and author who taught economics at the Lebanese American University from 2009 to 2019. He is best known for his 2018 Bitcoin book The Bitcoin Standard and hosts The Bitcoin Standard Podcast.Open the full entry, author of The Bitcoin Standard, became an economic adviser to El Salvador, joining Bukele’s Bitcoin team, which includes him and Herbert. He said on Twitter that the book “‘Orange Pilled’ millions,” including Michael SaylorMichael SaylorMichael Saylor is the founder and executive chairman of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), a company that has been buying bitcoin since 2020 and describes itself as the world’s first and largest “Bitcoin Treasury Company.”Open the full entry, and that many corporate and financial heavyweights “keep adding Bitcoin to their coffers daily.”⁠[22]

On March 21, 2024, he shared on X a video of a talk he gave in Santa Ana, El Salvador. In the eleven-minute talk he said that with Bitcoin Bukele was building new spaces while shrinking the government, redefining the concept of the state the world had known for 300 years; that El Salvador marked the start of a Renaissance 2.0 in the Western world and kept its treasury in bitcoin; and that Salvadorans, from the pupusa seller up, could put part of their earnings into bitcoin, making it non-confiscable. CriptoNoticias writes that he had then lived in El Salvador for 2 years and was part of Bukele’s team of advisers.⁠[23]

On July 21, 2025, on the podcast Was Bitcoin bringt hosted by Niko Jilch, he said that the International Monetary Fund and central banks would not exist in five years, that anything other than bitcoin would go to zero and that the IMF was very frightened, and he likened El Salvador to a new Statue of Liberty. CriptoNoticias, presenting the remarks, calls him one of Bukele’s advisers on Bitcoin policy and notes that an IMF report of July 15, 2025, states that the government had not voluntarily accumulated bitcoin since the loan programme was approved.⁠[24]

On August 20, 2025, CriptoNoticias presented a recent post of his on X, in which he named three pillars a country needs to follow El Salvador’s Bitcoin model: a national Bitcoin office, a strategic bitcoin reserve, and a banking law that integrates Bitcoin into the financial system. The article calls him a commentator and adviser to President Bukele on Bitcoin.⁠[25]

His full name is Timothy Maxwell Keiser. He grew up in Westchester, New York, and studied theater at New York UniversityNew York UniversityNew York University is a private university in New York City, founded in 1831, and one of the largest private universities in the United States.Open the full entry. A November 2013 International Business Times article gives his age as 53. A 2015 Big Issue article describes him as a native New Yorker raised in the wealthy suburb of Westchester County.⁠[1][5][26]

His wife, Stacy Herbert, was his co-host on Keiser Report. He said he met Herbert in an internet café in southern France about two decades before 2023.⁠[10][14]

He lived in London for many years. A 2018 Village Magazine interview writes that he and Herbert had left London for a while the previous year, out of fear of regulators and aggressive banks and energy companies, and he said UK regulators were “constantly threatening us.” The interview also reports that he said he would return to the United States if Donald TrumpDonald TrumpDonald Trump (born 1946) is an American politician and businessman, a Republican who ran the real estate company the Trump Organization and starred in the television series The Apprentice. He served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 and has been the 47th president since 2025.Open the full entry was elected president; in 2018 he lived in North CarolinaNorth CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state in the South Atlantic region of the United States; its capital is Raleigh and its largest city is Charlotte. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on November 21, 1789, becoming the 12th state, and its population in the 2020 census was 10,439,388.Open the full entry, and that June he met Village Magazine on the periphery of Money Conf in Dublin.⁠[10]

He hosted The Oracle with Max Keiser, a current affairs show with a humorous slant, on BBC World News, and produced short financial documentaries for Al Jazeera. He also anchored the analysis programme On the Edge.⁠[1][17]

In 2013 he presented The Truth About Markets on Resonance FM in London and RDU 98.5 in Christchurch, New Zealand; in 2018 he co-hosted the weekly economics programme Double Down on Radio Sputnik, presented a weekly finance and markets show on Resonance FM and wrote for The Huffington Post. The Seeking Alpha author biography also lists BBC Radio 5 Live, France24, PressTV and Radio France International among the outlets featuring his views.⁠[1][10][13]

His guests have included Roseanne Barr and George Galloway; during the financial crisis he called for a “fatwa” against then U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. Protos writes that the late-night host Trevor NoahTrevor NoahTrevor Noah is a South African comedian, author, host and producer who hosted The Daily Show from 2015 to 2022. The author of Born a Crime, he also works through stand-up tours, podcasts, a production company and an education foundation.Open the full entry called him “Bitcoin Willy Wonka.”⁠[1][21]

Village Magazine wrote in 2018 that through Heisenberg Capital, a first-generation crypto venture fund, he has backed Bitcoin and other blockchain businesses, and that he advises Sweet, a platform that rewards fans, on its token economy.⁠[10]

Protos writes that he has promoted cryptocurrencies including Quark (QRK), StartCoin (START) and his own MaxCoin (MAX), and that Bitfinex is one of his portfolio companies. The Bitcoin Amsterdam 2023 speaker page states that his Bitcoin content has been dubbed into Spanish since 2015, helping spread Bitcoin across Latin America.⁠[21][3]

X: Public account: https://x.com/maxkeiser (opens in a new window).⁠[3][25]