In just a few minutes, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will lead the rate-setting panel at today’s Federal Reserve meeting, where the central bank is expected to cut interest rates by 25 to 50 basis points. But before the rate-cut decision is revealed, the inflatable “Bitcoin Rat” designed by artist Nelson Saiers is back.

Bitcoin Rat Visits the Secret Island Where the Federal Reserve Was Born

A giant inflatable Bitcoin rat is currently installed on Jekyll Island, an isolated island off the coast of Georgia where a secret meeting that led to the creation of the Federal Reserve took place more than 100 years ago. The meeting in the fall of 1910 brought together six of the most influential bankers of the era to devise a plan to prevent another Panic of 1907.

The Panic of 1907 led to a 50 percent stock market crash and bank runs across the country. What they came up with eventually became the foundation of the Federal Reserve. The meeting was so secret that attendees were invited on the pretext of a duck hunt and asked to apply only their first names.

Financial journalist and Forbes founder Bertie Charles Forbes described the event as “the strangest, most secretive expedition in American financial history.” The art show aims to shed lithe on the ongoing impact this secret meeting of bankers has today as the public awaits the Fed’s decision to cut interest rates today.

“A lot of people think our system is pro-banker, not for the common man. Given that the Fed was created by bankers in secret, it’s not hard to make people a little more suspicious that the game might not be as fair as they’d like,” explained the exhibit’s creator, Nelson Saiers.

Artist Nelson Saiers on Bitcoin and the National Debt

The artist behind the Bitcoin rat, Nelson Saiers, is an American mathematical and financial artist and former hedge fund manager. Called the Warhol of Wall Street, Saiers often attacks the Federal Reserve.

Saiers has also taken a keen interest in Bitcoin. His celebrated inflatable rat is emblazoned with Bitcoin protocol code. “The size of our national debt is very concerning. I think those are some of the forces that get people excited about Bitcoin,” Saiers revealed. “Bitcoin is showing that it’s very resilient, even after problems like FTX,” he added.

Saiers wanted the opening of the facility to coincide with today’s meeting of the Federal Reserve, as well as to occur on the anniversary of the passage of the Federal Reserve Act of 1923 by the U.S. House of Representatives. Three months later, on December 23, 1913, the Federal Reserve Act was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson.