Bloomberg reporter JK Fox embarked on an oracular mission to document the cryptocurrency phenomenon in 2021, when Bitcoin and Ethereum were at all-time highs. An investigation that began with cynicism and a decade of writing about scams has evolved into The Numbers Grow, a ceremony that gives readers an accessible, entertaining and poignant account of the "wild rise and strange fall" of cryptocurrency.
Numbers Go Up is a crash course in the wild world of cryptocurrency, covering many areas, both thematically and geographically. Fox, who calls himself a "Brooklyn dad with a van," traveled to four continents on the two-year tour, landing in places like a yacht party in the Bahamas, a shaved ice truck in El Salvador, and a art exhibition in Switzerland. . .
Essentially, Faux suggested that Tether, the cryptocurrency company behind the stablecoin of the same name, had fooled much of the cryptocurrency world. True, Fo doesn't exactly demonstrate this in the book, but "Number Go Up" tries to tell a clear story of how $2 trillion in the broader crypto industry went down and who was responsible. In 2022, cryptocurrency prices plummeted as exchanges went bankrupt, investments disappeared, and one of the biggest players in the game, FTX, was revealed to be a fraud.
The book's magnetism comes from Fox's meticulous descriptions of semi-fictional encounters and his reactions to them. In a 2021 interview with Alex Mashinsky, then CEO of Celsius Networks, about the cryptocurrency company's business model and its investment in stablecoins, Fox's growing skepticism comes through when he writes about "trying to keep a face right". Celsius claims users can keep their cryptocurrency with the company and earn high interest rates, even though most savings accounts have near-zero interest rates.
Fox asked Maszynski if his claims were too good to be true. "Somebody's lying," Mashinsky said. "Either the bank is lying or Celsius is lying."
"I was sure I knew who was lying and it wasn't JP Morgan," Fox wrote. degrees Celsius collapsed a year later, in July 2022.
Personally, I've found that when my ideas don't make sense, it's usually due to one of two possible explanations. First, and far more often, I'm missing a key ingredient. It is difficult to understand calculations without knowing, for example, algebra.
A second, less common possibility is that something doesn't matter because it doesn't matter fundamentally.
Fox continues to steer readers into the "it's fundamentally meaningless" camp, even as he literally finds himself torn between making money with "fragile" crypto and ostensibly digital currencies. Describing the cryptocurrency's 2022 crash, he wrote: "If you're having trouble with it, that's actually a good sign of your investment instincts."
Despite Fox's general understanding of the fraudulent nature of some crypto companies, Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, who was convicted of overseeing one of the most notorious crypto schemes in history, had little to say, which alarmed reporters. In fact, in "Numbers Go Up" there are several scenes where the author asks Bankman-Fried for help, advice or perspective. At one point, Bankman-Fried explains, perhaps sympathetically, that Fox's theory about the stablecoin scam is false. At the time, the FTX CEO said, "It would have been a much sexier story if it had been, 'Damn, this is the biggest Ponzi scheme in the world, right?'
An excerpt from "Numbers Go Up" describes Fox's experience at FTX headquarters in the Bahamas, where he found Bankman-Fried sleeping on a bean bag and playing a video game while answering questions from the Economic Club of New York . Bankman-Fried's willingness to answer questions is comforting, perhaps because of the irony of his fate. (He was convicted of fraud in November and is serving decades in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced in March.)
But not all stories about growing numbers have a common conclusion. Tether, the company behind Fox's search, "was alive." In response to an interview request from Faux, Tether CEO Giancarlo Devassini wrote: "Bees don't waste time convincing bees that honey is better than shit."
While most of Fox's crypto research ventures were funny enough to be funny, such as driving around in golf carts or attending parties with Jimmy Phelan, his encounters with industry victims were fascinating.
In the game called "Axi Infinity", players can earn a cryptocurrency called Smooth Love Potion, which can be traded on several cryptocurrency exchanges. In the Philippines, Fox spoke to Arthur Lapina, the man who turned gambling into a career, earning up to $10,000 a week until mid-2021. A few months later, the currency's value plummeted, and Lapina was left with nothing .
In late 2022, Tether's red flags led Fox to Cambodia, where human trafficking victims were jailed for fraud. According to the ledger, the money received was often moved using Tether.
While The Numbers Grows is broad in scope, each chapter covers so much material that the connection between some of Fox's revelations can seem a bit tenuous at times. For example, a long interlude in Real Estate Land, or NFT, offers a humorous sketch involving a tense conversation with Fox's wife and the purchase of a terrifying digital monkey, but its connection to the book of claims it was somewhat elusive.
However, Fox's tone throughout "Numbers Go Up" is remarkably honest, even sad at times. It is this voice that moves events from the timeline into a compelling narrative. Early on in his journey, Fox found that the cult-like enthusiasm for cryptocurrency, with world leaders and educated executives waxing poetic about Bitcoin's benefits, made him briefly feel like the piston in the room.
But this doubt did not last long. “From the beginning, I thought cryptocurrencies were pretty stupid. And it turned out to be even dumber than I thought."