MAX KEISER has one of the most colourful careers in the crypto space, working as everything from an actor, to a stockbroker, to a financial broadcaster.
“My philosophy has always been to essentially just take the universe where the universe is going to take you,” he claims.
But what is the story behind Max Keiser’s success and what is his net worth?
Who is Max Keiser?
Max Keiser grew up in Westchester County, New York and remained in the state to study at university.
He studied theatre and liberal arts at New York University between 1979-1983 and spent his early career taking on a number of jobs in stand-up comedy and in radio.
In order to subsidise his hopes of making it in the entertainment industry, he also worked as a part-time stockbroker at Paine Webber and Oppenheimer & Co.
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Explaining his unexpected enjoyment as a stockbroker, he told a podcast: “I immediately fell in love with it, because Wall Street is incredibly theatrical.
“Wall Street is basically thousands of stories told simultaneously in a theatre called ‘ticker tape’. So, the ticker tape is just scrolling by and there are just so many incredible things going on simultaneously.”
He added: “The bull that we’re still in really started in 1982-2, so we’ve been in this 40-year bull market. So that was just good timing.
“Within a year the market just took off in a huge way, and I was 22, and just immediately made a huge amount of money.”
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By 1990 he says he had made enough money was able to go into “semi-retirement” and moved to Paris in France to take some time out and travel.
He spent five years in Europe before selling a movie scrip to the Hollywood studio Miramax and moving to Los Angeles.
While there he created the Hollywood Stock Exchange, an online simulation that aimed to combine “the fascination with Hollywood with the fascination with trading stocks and bonds”.
Admitted it was almost like the original NFT, Keiser said his game gave people the opportunity to buy and sell movie stock based on films’ predicted box office success.
The platform had its own virtual currency, with trades directly impacting the price of securities.
He sold the platform to financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald in May 2001 for an undisclosed sum.
Keiser then turned his attention to a career in media, presenting on finance shows.
He fronted programmes on the BBC, Al-Jazeera, and even on Iran’s Press TV.
In 2009 he also created The Keiser Report for RT, presenting alongside Stacy Herbet.
On the Keiser Report, the entrepreneur and media personality regularly spoke about his interest in cryptocurrency. He was critical of big banks and argued crypto would one day replace traditional fiat money.
He would use the show to interview crypto investors as well as give his own insights into the sector.
Keiser ended his association with RT in February 2022 after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.
How old is Max Keiser?
Max Keiser was born on January 23, 1960. He is currently 62 years old.
Is Max Keiser married to Stacy Herbet?
Max Keiser married his presenting partner Stacy Herbet in December 2012.
The couple first met in a French internet café in 2003 while discussing work.
After a number of years working together they started dating.
Herbet has described herself as being Keiser’s “operating system”, helping to keep his personal and professional life in order.
Meanwhile, Keiser has likened their relationship to “a gang of two”.
He said in 2021: “It’s a very small gang, there’s only two people in the gang, but that’s how we approach our work and our life.
“We’re out there traveling the world, pushing the Bitcoin maximalist message and we look out for each other, as gang members do, and we trust each other like we’re in the gang.”
What is Max Keiser’s net worth?
In 2013, Max Keiser claimed that he had become a Bitcoin millionaire.
In an episode of the Keiser Report on the RT television station, he said: “Boy if feels great to be a Bitcoin millionaire.”
At the time Bitcoin was worth just $43. Assuming he bought just $5,000 more and with the price of the cryptocurrency now valued at more than $20,000, he is expected to be a billionaire.