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Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall

Zeke Faux
Crown, 2023
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Eye Opening
  • Engaging
  • Insider's Take

Recommendation

As trillions in government stimulus washed through the US economy in 2020 and 2021, the value of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies soared. Then, digital images known as NFTs rocketed in value – drawings of cartoon monkeys fetched more than $1 million. In this entertaining book, journalist Zeke Faux tells the tale of his tour of the crypto craze: He went to Miami for bitcoin confabs and traveled to the Bahamas to interview one-time crypto-world hero Sam Bankman-Fried. Faux even dropped $20,000 on a Bored Ape NFT. All told, his experience was as outlandish as you’d imagine.

Summary

During the pandemic, a crypto bubble inflated beyond all logic.

Zeke Faux began digging into the pandemic-era cryptocurrency craze in mid-2021, when public enthusiasm was reaching peak levels. He approached his subject with considerable skepticism, starting with a then-unproven premise: that the supposedly US dollar-backed “stablecoin” Tether, which served to legitimize a host of other crypto coins, was a scam. 

Earlier that year, a friend had texted Faux, advising him to drop a few hundred bucks on something the friend identified as “doggie coin.” “I am very bored,” the friend added. The actual name of the virtual currency was Dogecoin, and its value quickly exploded. The friend crowed about his “genius” in buying the coin, sending Faux photos from a trip to Walt Disney World, financed by his crypto winnings. The friend’s state of mind and the objectively valueless coin’s inexplicable rise were hardly outliers. Stuck at home, their bank accounts full of stimulus money, millions of people started dabbling in dubious investments as a form of entertainment. 

In June 2021, Faux traveled to a bitcoin...

About the Author

Zeke Faux is an investigative reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg News. He’s a winner of the Gerald Loeb Award.

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