Book Review: Number Go Up by Zeke Faux

Like many people, there was something exciting about the fall of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX crypto exchange - Michael Lewis had been embedded with him when as the charges were filed. One of the all-time best finance/tech/analytics journalists was already there on the ground when this house of cards came crashing down. Like many people, I pre-ordered his book Going Infinite as soon as I was able.

And like many people, before I even read the book I was put off by reviews saying that throughout the fall of FTX, Michael Lewis had become...SBF's best friend???

Not really interested in reading a book that was apparently SBF's apologia, I saw several reviews mention that the best book of investigative journalism about crypto was Zeke Faux's Number Go Up. My interest was piqued; however, I resisted grabbing that book for a very important reason.

I mean...ZEKE FAUX?!?!?! What the hell kind of name is that for an investigative journalist?

I put off picking up this book for a while, but as soon as I entered the Posman Books back in October on my son's birthday celebration, before shaking hands with Todd Parker and getting his autograph on my copy of Billionaire Boogeymen, before selecting A Memory Called Empire for my blind date with a book, before any of this, I walked in the door, looked to my left, and saw a copy of Number Go Up. I picked it up.

Yes, this is the third and last review of the Posman Books trilogy! We made it!

Anyway, the short version of this review is this: Number Go Up is the book you thought Michael Lewis was writing about crypto.

Okay, longer review: Zeke Faux, it turns out, is a veteran investigative journalist who regularly writes for Bloomberg publications about frauds and financial crimes. He entered this assignment knowing nothing about crypto, but when a friend during the pandemic made enough from a crypto exchange to fund a Disney vacation, Faux decided he needed to start looking into crypto to see whether it was legit or not.

So, if you're worried about tons of numbers and data getting thrown at you, keep in mind this is not a book about crypto; this is a book about Zeke Faux investigating crypto.

Just like Michael Lewis (whose writing style always reminded me of Hunter S Thompson), Faux is writing an actual story here, and while he illuminates what crypto is, how it works, how it corresponds with the blockchain, where the problems are, etc. in a clear enough way that even I could understand it (a little bit), you don't need to follow any of that to enjoy the book - you can enjoy his descriptions of the many places he needed to travel to, the strange crypto-bros he met, the weird and bougie parties hosted by companies worth billions of dollars overnight.

The through-line of this book is that Faux is investigating a token called Tether, which is supposedly linked to the US dollar and forms the bedrock of most other tokens. Tether was co-created by a former Italian plastic surgeon (he quit because he refused to do a breast reduction on a woman he said had perfect breasts) who had been caught for frauds before, but who was able to create a company worth billions of dollars (allegedly) under the radar. Faux spends the entire story trying to get the Tether head to sit down with him.

Along the way, Faux investigates several side-quests, including flying to the Bahamas to the headquarters of FTX. Faux provides a captivating portrait of SBF, and while writing about the various personalities at FTX and Alameda Research (all of whom would come up later in SBF's trial) as well as the inherent conflicts of interest between his two companies, Faux explores an interesting question: Would SBF have REALLY given away all of his wealth to charity, or was that just part of the fraud?

In many ways this book was reminiscent of the documentaries about the Fyre Festival, in that no matter if you're talking about the victims or the perpetrators, almost everyone in this book is a dick, so they earned what they had coming for them. But just like how the Netflix Fyre Festival documentary showed the impact the show had on the island's residents, one of the chapters highlights the people whose lives are very much ruined by crypto. Faux takes a trip to Cambodia, where people from Cambodia and Vietnam are literally enslaved to commit crypto fraud for organized criminal groups, all with the Cambodian government's implicit consent. In one instance, Faux is able to stay at a luxurious hotel overlooking the office park where kidnapped people are quartered and routinely beaten for not turning enough profits. Special note here: Whenever you receive a text from an unknown number seemingly for another person, make sure to report it as Junk and delete - it very well could be someone trying to con you into a crypto investment.

Eventually, the third crypto wave crashes, FTX goes bankrupt, and SBF is charged in the US. Before being arrested and then extradited in the Bahamas, Faux is able to sneak into SBF's residence and get one final interview with him. The book ends with the crypto bubble burst and court battles ahead - not only SBF's criminal trial, but the criminal trial for the head of Binance as well as the case between Celsius and its chief investor. Through it all, though, Tether keeps chugging along.

To bring this review full circle, Michael Lewis actually makes a cameo in the book. Faux says he grew up reading Lewis' books (okay, that makes me feel old) and that Lewis' writing inspired him (which is evident in how this book is laid out). He sees Lewis when he is onstage at a crypto convention as the moderator for a segment with SBF, where Lewis tosses out softball questions like "What does it feel like to be the smartest man in finance?"

This was a much more intriguing and compelling book than I initially thought it would be, and definitely recommend it - nine out of ten hot dogs. But if you're interested, read it soon - who knows how quickly the next development will come to pass?