Number Go Up by Zeke Faux is a unique blend of investigative journalism, social commentary and a true crime recount of some of the biggest frauds in recent years. And it was an interesting read because I experienced most of the stories told in the book in real time.
Zeke’s book documents the 2020–2022 hype-cycle and subsequent fall of the crypto industry. Think Dogecoin, NFTs, news about Bitcoin hitting a new all-time high and the like. It was the pandemic and also the time when I first dabbled with crypto. Luckily, I only scratched the surface back then, so most of the stories from this book I only knew from hearsay. Looking back at this time by reading this book, it’s pretty crazy and somewhat hilarious what was going on during that time. And in hindsight, I’m also glad that I was lucky enough to not have gotten pulled in too deep.
What’s also hilarious is the fact, that this book is technically a failure. All the stories are hold together by Zeke’s effort to prove that Tether, a stablecoin that is supposed to always mirror the value of the US-Dollar, is a fraud. The only problem: Tether is one of the few companies that actually managed to survive the big crypto crash of 2022.
But that doesn’t make the book any less interesting, quite the opposite, actually. Together with Zeke, we set off on a journey through the weird world of crypto. There we meet child-actors and ex-plastic surgeons turned billionaires, crypto bros who try to make Bitcoin a national currency and also Sam Bankman-Fried. In just a couple of weeks, he went from being the poster boy of the “serious” crypto people to one of the biggest fraudsters in recent history.
Practically every chapter tells a new unbelievable and odd story from the crypto-mania, so the book never gets boring. The story about Tether is just the frame that holds everything together and is the driving force behind everything that Zeke investigates. Combine this structure with Faux’s funny writing, and you get a book that is almost impossible to put down. At least if you are (or were) somewhat interested in cryptocurrencies yourself.
Two well-written and funny bits I don’t want to keep from you:
“Anybody around the world can play and make money playing,” Cuban said in a quasi-documentary on Axie posted on YouTube. “And it makes perfect sense once you dig into the numbers.” The numbers actually made no sense.
The mysterious text message arrived one night in August 2022, while I was out at a bar with a friend. It read: “Hi David, I’m Vicky Ho don’t you remember me?” This was strange, because my name is not David, and I couldn’t remember anyone named Vicky.
A book well worth your time: 4.75/5