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Number Go Up

Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall

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Number Go Up

Written by: Zeke Faux
Narrated by: Dan Bittner
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About this listen

The “rollicking” (The Economist), “masterfully written” (The Washington Post) account of the crypto delusion, and how Sam Bankman-Fried and a cast of fellow nerds and hustlers turned useless virtual coins into trillions of dollars—hailed by Ezra Klein in The New York Times as one of the “Books That Explain Where We Are”

FINALIST: the Edgar Award (Fact Crime), the Macavity Award (Nonfiction), the Porchlight Business Book Award, the SABEW Best in Business Book Award

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times DealBook, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, The Globe and Mail, Irish Examiner, Morningstar, The Verge, Wired

In 2021 cryptocurrency went mainstream. Giant investment funds were buying it, celebrities like Tom Brady endorsed it, and TV ads hailed it as the future of money. Hardly anyone knew how it worked—but why bother with the particulars when everyone was making a fortune from Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, or some other bizarrely named “digital asset”?

As he observed this frenzy, investigative reporter Zeke Faux had a nagging question: Was it all just a confidence game of epic proportions? What started as curiosity—with a dash of FOMO—would morph into a two-year globe-spanning quest to understand the wizards behind the world’s new financial machinery. Faux’s investigation would lead him to a schlubby, frizzy-haired twenty-nine-year-old named Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF for short) and a host of other crypto scammers, utopians, and overnight billionaires.

Faux follows the trail to a luxury resort in the Bahamas, where SBF boldly declares that he will use his crypto fortune to save the world. Faux talks his way onto the yacht of a former child actor turned crypto impresario and gains access to “ApeFest,” an elite party headlined by Snoop Dogg, by purchasing a $20,000 image of a cartoon monkey. In El Salvador, Faux learns what happens when a country wagers its treasury on Bitcoin, and in the Philippines, he stumbles upon a Pokémon knockoff mobile game touted by boosters as a cure for poverty. And in an astonishing development, a spam text leads Faux to Cambodia, where he uncovers a crypto-powered human-trafficking ring.

When the bubble suddenly bursts in 2022, Faux brings listeners inside SBF’s penthouse as the fallen crypto king faces his imminent arrest. Fueled by the absurd details and authoritative reporting that earned Zeke Faux the accolade “our great poet of crime” (Money Stuff columnist Matt Levine), Number Go Up is the essential chronicle, by turns harrowing and uproarious, of a $3 trillion financial delusion.

©2023 Zeke Faux (P)2023 Random House Audio
True Crime Cryptocurrency Thought-Provoking Celebrity Business
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What the critics say

“Journalism schools will be able to use Going Infinite, Michael Lewis’ new book about the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange and the fall of its boss, Sam Bankman-Fried, as a textbook. . . . Fortunately, readers interested in the story of the cryptocurrency scam and Bankman-Fried’s rise and fall can turn to a much more convincing (and more entertaining) book. That’s Number Go Up. . . . In telling this story, Faux has one major advantage over Lewis: Almost from the start, he had crypto’s number.”Los Angeles Times

“Faux’s boisterous, masterfully written book is worth a read. . . . Faux’s cast of misfits and con artists never fails to entertain.”—The Washington Post

Number Go Up offers a shrewdly skeptical view of crypto where Going Infinite is stubbornly credulous.”The New York Times

What listeners say about Number Go Up

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very interesting lesson

I've never been able to really understand crypto, but this book breaks it down so well. the narration is incredible; sassy and pissed off. maybe that's how I learn best when someone is perpetually annoyed. I had a blast listening to it, will probably listen again, and I have recommended it to many people.

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Love this exploration

Great title. Love the depth of exploration here. The author is obviously well-connected in that space. 

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Amazing Listen, I Don't Understand the 1 Star

Probably a former crypto investor I guess. Anyway, truly captivating, I went in with what I thought was some knowledge of the crypto collapse as I'd followed it on youtube for years but Zeke Faux makes a personal connection and seems closer and thus more insightful to the scene, which is a rollercoaster of absurd, hilarious, and downright dark and disturbing. Highly recommend.

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A masterpiece investigative reporting well narrated

Having listened to both number go up and going infinite, I love the former so much more in its thorough research. It took not just hard work but also tremendous bravery to do the reporting that the author did. The story is well written and the audio version is well narrated. Highly recommend!

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A wild trip

This was a hell of a book and a great summary of the last several years in the crypto world

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Not for me

I'm probably not the best person to write a review of this book as I found it a depressing comment on human nature. But this is not the fault of the author who is only reporting on what he uncovered about these frauds.

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1 person found this helpful