Magic Internet Money Bitcoin Wizard

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Also known as: Bitcoin Wizard · Magic Internet Money

Magic Internet Money: Bitcoin Wizard is a 2013 deliberately crude MS Paint illustration of a wizard created by Reddit user mavensbot for r/Bitcoin, becoming the platform's most popular ad.

Magic Internet Money: Bitcoin Wizard is an MS Paint illustration of a wizard created as a Reddit advertisement for the r/Bitcoin subreddit in 2013. Originally drawn by Reddit user mavensbot, the crude, deliberately amateurish ad became the most popular Reddit ad ever made, with some crediting it as a factor in Bitcoin's price surge from $287 to over $1,000 in just 22 days1. The image later inspired a near-4 MB NFT that produced the largest block in Bitcoin's history2.

bitcoin memesreddit memesms paint memescrypto memesadvertising memes

Overview

The meme features a crudely drawn wizard rendered in Microsoft Paint, wearing a blue robe and pointed hat, holding a staff, with the text "MAGIC INTERNET MONEY" and the Bitcoin logo. The whole thing looks like it was drawn in about five minutes by someone who had never opened an image editor before. That was the point. The intentionally rough, self-deprecating style made it stand out from every polished ad on Reddit's front page and gave it a disarming charm that no professional agency could have replicated1.

On February 18, 2013, when one Bitcoin was worth about $26, r/Bitcoin moderator u/theymos created a thread asking the subreddit community to submit ideas for a Reddit advertisement3. Within an hour, user u/mavensbot posted an MS Paint drawing of a wizard alongside the caption "Bitcoin Magic Internet Money"1.

The design broke every rule of conventional advertising. No clean typography, no professional layout, no polished branding. As one Redditor, u/Amanojack, put it: "for reddit the MSPaint ad really hits the sweet spot. It's hard to explain why, other than to say it's disarming and charming in all the right ways. It doesn't feel like self-promotion because it pokes fun at itself"1.

Origin & Background

Platform
Reddit (r/Bitcoin)
Key People
u/mavensbot, u/theymos
Date
2013

On February 18, 2013, when one Bitcoin was worth about $26, r/Bitcoin moderator u/theymos created a thread asking the subreddit community to submit ideas for a Reddit advertisement. Within an hour, user u/mavensbot posted an MS Paint drawing of a wizard alongside the caption "Bitcoin Magic Internet Money".

The design broke every rule of conventional advertising. No clean typography, no professional layout, no polished branding. As one Redditor, u/Amanojack, put it: "for reddit the MSPaint ad really hits the sweet spot. It's hard to explain why, other than to say it's disarming and charming in all the right ways. It doesn't feel like self-promotion because it pokes fun at itself".

How It Spread

The Bitcoin Wizard ad went live on Reddit on November 6, 2013, when Bitcoin was trading at $287 and r/Bitcoin had roughly 56,000 subscribers. That same day, an unknown user posted the image to the r/ads subreddit, where it picked up more than 1,600 upvotes (98% upvoted) and 585 comments.

The ad's conversion rate told the real story. Standard Reddit ad click-through rates sat around 0.18%, but the Bitcoin Wizard ad hit 2.753%. In its first six months, the ad racked up 37 billion impressions.

Just one week after the ad launched, South Park's art department appeared to pay homage. The November 13, 2013 episode "Black Friday" featured an image bearing a strong resemblance to the Bitcoin Wizard. When r/Bitcoin users spotted the similarity, the connection went viral across the subreddit. At the time of that episode's airing, Bitcoin had already climbed to $416.

By November 29, 2013, only 22 days after the ad first appeared, Bitcoin's price had rocketed to $1,132 and r/Bitcoin's subscriber count jumped 36% to 74,000. Paul Bars, who published a detailed retrospective of the ad's impact on Medium in February 2017, argued that the wizard kicked off a chain reaction: Redditors spread the word, South Park amplified it, and mainstream media followed.

The subreddit kept growing. It hit 400,000 subscribers in November 2017, crossed 500,000 in December 2017, reached one million by late 2018, and passed three million by 2021.

How to Use This Meme

The Bitcoin Wizard typically appears in contexts related to cryptocurrency evangelism or humor about Bitcoin's wild price swings. Common uses include:

- Posting the original image when Bitcoin hits a new milestone or crashes dramatically - Creating MS Paint-style variations for other cryptocurrencies or internet money jokes - Using the wizard as a reaction image when someone asks "what is Bitcoin?" - Referencing the wizard's deliberately amateur aesthetic when making fun of overproduced marketing

The meme works best when it leans into the low-effort, self-aware humor that made the original ad so effective.

Cultural Impact

In February 2023, the Bitcoin Wizard got a second life when developer Udi Wertheimer and mining company Luxor mined the largest block in Bitcoin's history. At 3.96 MB, just under Bitcoin's 4 MB limit, the block contained an NFT of a bald, bearded wizard wearing sunglasses with the text "magic internet JPEGs". The NFT was minted using the Ordinals protocol under the name "Taproot Wizards," a direct reference to the original Magic Internet Money meme.

The stunt landed right in the middle of a heated debate within the Bitcoin community about whether NFTs belonged on the network at all. Purists argued Bitcoin should stay limited to financial transactions, while proponents saw Ordinals as opening the door to new use cases. The Taproot Wizards inscription became a flashpoint in that argument.

In August 2025, Coinbase posted the Bitcoin Wizard image on X, and the post gained major traction after Elon Musk reposted and reacted to it.

Fun Facts

The wizard ad's 2.753% click-through rate was over 15 times higher than the typical Reddit ad conversion rate of 0.18%.

The ad accumulated 37 billion impressions in its first six months on Reddit.

The Taproot Wizards NFT block was 3.96 MB, just 0.04 MB under Bitcoin's hard 4 MB block size limit.

Paul Bars's Medium article about the ad's history frames it as a case study in why deliberately breaking design rules can outperform professional marketing.

Derivatives & Variations

Taproot Wizards NFT:

A near-4 MB Ordinals inscription featuring a bald wizard in sunglasses promoting "magic internet JPEGs," minted in February 2023 as the largest Bitcoin block ever[2].

South Park homage:

The Season 17 episode "Black Friday" (November 13, 2013) featured imagery that r/Bitcoin users identified as a direct reference to the wizard ad[1].

Official merchandise:

As of March 2021, official Magic Internet Money merchandise became available through bitcoinwizard.com[1].

Frequently Asked Questions

Magic Internet Money Bitcoin Wizard

2013Advertisement / image macroclassic

Also known as: Bitcoin Wizard · Magic Internet Money

Magic Internet Money: Bitcoin Wizard is a 2013 deliberately crude MS Paint illustration of a wizard created by Reddit user mavensbot for r/Bitcoin, becoming the platform's most popular ad.

Magic Internet Money: Bitcoin Wizard is an MS Paint illustration of a wizard created as a Reddit advertisement for the r/Bitcoin subreddit in 2013. Originally drawn by Reddit user mavensbot, the crude, deliberately amateurish ad became the most popular Reddit ad ever made, with some crediting it as a factor in Bitcoin's price surge from $287 to over $1,000 in just 22 days. The image later inspired a near-4 MB NFT that produced the largest block in Bitcoin's history.

bitcoin memes reddit memes ms paint memes crypto memes advertising memes

Overview

The meme features a crudely drawn wizard rendered in Microsoft Paint, wearing a blue robe and pointed hat, holding a staff, with the text "MAGIC INTERNET MONEY" and the Bitcoin logo. The whole thing looks like it was drawn in about five minutes by someone who had never opened an image editor before. That was the point. The intentionally rough, self-deprecating style made it stand out from every polished ad on Reddit's front page and gave it a disarming charm that no professional agency could have replicated.

On February 18, 2013, when one Bitcoin was worth about $26, r/Bitcoin moderator u/theymos created a thread asking the subreddit community to submit ideas for a Reddit advertisement. Within an hour, user u/mavensbot posted an MS Paint drawing of a wizard alongside the caption "Bitcoin Magic Internet Money".

The design broke every rule of conventional advertising. No clean typography, no professional layout, no polished branding. As one Redditor, u/Amanojack, put it: "for reddit the MSPaint ad really hits the sweet spot. It's hard to explain why, other than to say it's disarming and charming in all the right ways. It doesn't feel like self-promotion because it pokes fun at itself".

Origin & Background

Platform
Reddit (r/Bitcoin)
Key People
u/mavensbot, u/theymos
Date
2013

On February 18, 2013, when one Bitcoin was worth about $26, r/Bitcoin moderator u/theymos created a thread asking the subreddit community to submit ideas for a Reddit advertisement. Within an hour, user u/mavensbot posted an MS Paint drawing of a wizard alongside the caption "Bitcoin Magic Internet Money".

The design broke every rule of conventional advertising. No clean typography, no professional layout, no polished branding. As one Redditor, u/Amanojack, put it: "for reddit the MSPaint ad really hits the sweet spot. It's hard to explain why, other than to say it's disarming and charming in all the right ways. It doesn't feel like self-promotion because it pokes fun at itself".

How It Spread

The Bitcoin Wizard ad went live on Reddit on November 6, 2013, when Bitcoin was trading at $287 and r/Bitcoin had roughly 56,000 subscribers. That same day, an unknown user posted the image to the r/ads subreddit, where it picked up more than 1,600 upvotes (98% upvoted) and 585 comments.

The ad's conversion rate told the real story. Standard Reddit ad click-through rates sat around 0.18%, but the Bitcoin Wizard ad hit 2.753%. In its first six months, the ad racked up 37 billion impressions.

Just one week after the ad launched, South Park's art department appeared to pay homage. The November 13, 2013 episode "Black Friday" featured an image bearing a strong resemblance to the Bitcoin Wizard. When r/Bitcoin users spotted the similarity, the connection went viral across the subreddit. At the time of that episode's airing, Bitcoin had already climbed to $416.

By November 29, 2013, only 22 days after the ad first appeared, Bitcoin's price had rocketed to $1,132 and r/Bitcoin's subscriber count jumped 36% to 74,000. Paul Bars, who published a detailed retrospective of the ad's impact on Medium in February 2017, argued that the wizard kicked off a chain reaction: Redditors spread the word, South Park amplified it, and mainstream media followed.

The subreddit kept growing. It hit 400,000 subscribers in November 2017, crossed 500,000 in December 2017, reached one million by late 2018, and passed three million by 2021.

How to Use This Meme

The Bitcoin Wizard typically appears in contexts related to cryptocurrency evangelism or humor about Bitcoin's wild price swings. Common uses include:

- Posting the original image when Bitcoin hits a new milestone or crashes dramatically - Creating MS Paint-style variations for other cryptocurrencies or internet money jokes - Using the wizard as a reaction image when someone asks "what is Bitcoin?" - Referencing the wizard's deliberately amateur aesthetic when making fun of overproduced marketing

The meme works best when it leans into the low-effort, self-aware humor that made the original ad so effective.

Cultural Impact

In February 2023, the Bitcoin Wizard got a second life when developer Udi Wertheimer and mining company Luxor mined the largest block in Bitcoin's history. At 3.96 MB, just under Bitcoin's 4 MB limit, the block contained an NFT of a bald, bearded wizard wearing sunglasses with the text "magic internet JPEGs". The NFT was minted using the Ordinals protocol under the name "Taproot Wizards," a direct reference to the original Magic Internet Money meme.

The stunt landed right in the middle of a heated debate within the Bitcoin community about whether NFTs belonged on the network at all. Purists argued Bitcoin should stay limited to financial transactions, while proponents saw Ordinals as opening the door to new use cases. The Taproot Wizards inscription became a flashpoint in that argument.

In August 2025, Coinbase posted the Bitcoin Wizard image on X, and the post gained major traction after Elon Musk reposted and reacted to it.

Fun Facts

The wizard ad's 2.753% click-through rate was over 15 times higher than the typical Reddit ad conversion rate of 0.18%.

The ad accumulated 37 billion impressions in its first six months on Reddit.

The Taproot Wizards NFT block was 3.96 MB, just 0.04 MB under Bitcoin's hard 4 MB block size limit.

Paul Bars's Medium article about the ad's history frames it as a case study in why deliberately breaking design rules can outperform professional marketing.

Derivatives & Variations

Taproot Wizards NFT:

A near-4 MB Ordinals inscription featuring a bald wizard in sunglasses promoting "magic internet JPEGs," minted in February 2023 as the largest Bitcoin block ever[2].

South Park homage:

The Season 17 episode "Black Friday" (November 13, 2013) featured imagery that r/Bitcoin users identified as a direct reference to the wizard ad[1].

Official merchandise:

As of March 2021, official Magic Internet Money merchandise became available through bitcoinwizard.com[1].

Frequently Asked Questions