Crypto is about a lot more than a former golden boy turned villain

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This week, we’ll dive into the results of a survey I conducted on the future of AI and what lies beyond the ChatGPT hype. And because you can’t always escape the hype, I also read a book about SBF — but not the one by Michael Lewis. Instead, I picked “Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall” by investigative reporter Zeke Faux, and I am glad I did. — Anna

Ponzi everywhere

Although I just did, it’s not entirely fair to call Faux’s book “Number Go Up” an “SBF book.” Sure, it has several chapters on FTX’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, and the epilogue is mostly about his fate, which has been unfolding in court this week. But it’s also about crypto more broadly, and that’s a good thing.

It’s not that I don’t care about getting a better understanding of SBF’s personality. I listened to an entire podcast series about him, and my colleague Jacquelyn Melinek is also coming back from court each day with fascinating tidbits on his behavior. But just like the trial’s first witness was an alleged victim of FTX, I also want to hear from people whose lives have been affected by the rise and fall of crypto.