
Number Go Up
Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall
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Narrated by:
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Dan Bittner
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By:
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Zeke Faux
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 AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“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
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Story
Over the last decade, a single innovation has massively fueled digital black markets: cryptocurrency. Crime lords inhabiting lawless corners of the internet have operated more freely—whether in drug dealing, money laundering, or human trafficking—than their analog counterparts could have ever dreamed of. By transacting not in dollars or pounds but in currencies with anonymous ledgers, overseen by no government, beholden to no bankers, these black marketeers have sought to rob law enforcement of their chief method of cracking down on illicit finance: following the money.
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Could not put this down
- By Mike Reaves on 01-28-23
By: Andy Greenberg
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Rinsed
- From Cartels to Crypto: How the Tech Industry Washes Money for the World's Deadliest Crooks
- By: Geoff White
- Narrated by: Geoff White
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Money laundering has been around for centuries. For as long as people have been stealing money, there's been an industry ready to wash it. But recent tech innovations have created vastly complex new systems for laundering that threaten to overwhelm authorities, destabilise economies and disrupt societies. Ranging from the flamboyant luxury of Dubai hotels to quiet coastal Ireland, from the UK to Nigeria and from Indonesia to North Korea, Rinsed is a truly global relevatory investigation into the new army of innovative launderers ... and the consequences for all of us.
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Almost but not quite plagiarism
- By T.T. on 06-19-24
By: Geoff White
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Dumb Money
- The GameStop Short Squeeze and the Ragtag Group of Amateur Traders That Brought Wall Street to Its Knees
- By: Ben Mezrich
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling author Ben Mezrich offers a gripping, beat-by-beat account of how a loosely affiliate group of private investors and internet trolls on a subreddit called WallStreetBets took down one of the biggest hedge funds on Wall Street, firing the first shot in a revolution that threatens to upend the establishment.
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Seemed like Mezrich rushed this book
- By William C Scott on 09-24-21
By: Ben Mezrich
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The Fund
- Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend
- By: Rob Copeland
- Narrated by: Rob Copeland, Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Ray Dalio does not want you to listen to this audiobook. Late last year, when the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund on the planet, announced that he was stepping down from the company he started out of his apartment nearly 50 years ago, the news made headlines around the world. Dalio cultivated an aura of international admiration and fame thanks to his company’s eye-popping success, coupled with a mystique he encouraged with frequent media appearances, celebrity hobnobbing, and his bestselling book, Principles.
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Best finance book I've read in years
- By Aaron on 12-16-23
By: Rob Copeland
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Lying for Money
- How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of the World
- By: Dan Davies
- Narrated by: Tim Paige
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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The way most white-collar crime works is by manipulating institutional psychology. That means creating something that looks as much as possible like a normal set of transactions. The drama comes later, when it all unwinds. Financial crime seems horribly complicated, but there are only so many ways you can con someone out of what’s theirs.
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Very interesting book!
- By Ebong Eka on 02-21-22
By: Dan Davies
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Super Pumped
- The Battle for Uber
- By: Mike Isaac
- Narrated by: Holter Graham, Mike Isaac
- Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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A New York Times technology correspondent presents the dramatic rise and fall of Uber, set against the rapid upheaval in Silicon Valley during the mobile era. Based on hundreds of interviews with current and former Uber employees, along with previously unpublished documents, Super Pumped is a pause-resisting story of ambition and deception, obscene wealth, and bad behavior, that explores how blistering technological and financial innovation culminated in one of the most catastrophic 12-month periods in American corporate history.
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A forced narrative and a bad version of Bad Blood
- By Benji on 09-09-19
By: Mike Isaac
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Money Men
- A Hot Startup, A Billion Dollar Fraud, A Fight for the Truth
- By: Dan McCrum
- Narrated by: Dan McCrum
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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When investigative journalist Dan McCrum first came across Wirecard, the hot new tech company that looked poised to challenge Silicon Valley, it all looked a little too good to be true: offices were sprouting up all over the world, and they were reporting runaway growth. In the space of a few short years, the company had come from nowhere to overtake industry giants like Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank on the stock market. As McCrum began to dig deeper, he encountered a story stranger and more compelling than he could have imagined.
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Interesting book but…
- By Rock Climber on 06-11-23
By: Dan McCrum
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The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains
- An Introduction to Cryptocurrencies and the Technology That Powers Them
- By: Antony Lewis
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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There’s a lot of information on cryptocurrency and blockchains out there. But, for the uninitiated, most of this information can be indecipherable. The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains aims to provide an accessible guide to this new currency and the revolutionary technology that powers it.
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Author didn't do the whole job.
- By Alexander Andro on 05-21-21
By: Antony Lewis
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The Spider Network
- The Wild Story of a Math Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History
- By: David Enrich
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2006, an oddball group of bankers, traders and brokers from some of the world's largest financial institutions made a startling realization: Libor - the London interbank offered rate, which determines the interest rates on trillions in loans worldwide - was set daily by a small group of easily manipulated functionaries, and that they could reap huge profits by nudging it to suit their trading portfolios.
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Does anyone "proofread" the audio book?
- By Gracie on 07-04-18
By: David Enrich
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The Trolls of Wall Street
- How the Outcasts and Insurgents Are Hacking the Markets
- By: Nathaniel Popper
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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The dramatic story of an improbable gang of self-proclaimed “degenerates” who made WallStreetBets into a cultural movement that moved from the fringes of the internet to the center of Wall Street, upending the global financial markets and changing how an entire generation thinks about money, investing, and themselves.
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Very interesting concepts
- By Leandro on 06-26-24
By: Nathaniel Popper
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The Age of Cryptocurrency
- How Bitcoin and Digital Money Are Challenging the Global Economic Order
- By: Paul Vigna, Michael J. Casey
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Bitcoin became a buzzword overnight. A cyber enigma with an enthusiastic following, it pops up in headlines and fuels endless media debate. You can apparently use it to buy anything from coffee to cars, yet few people seem truly to understand what it is. This raises the question: Why should anyone care about bitcoin? In The Age of Cryptocurrency, Wall Street journalists Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey deliver the definitive answer to this question.
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Nice intro, imaginative stuff, but boosterish
- By Philo on 09-25-15
By: Paul Vigna, and others
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Black Edge
- Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street
- By: Sheelah Kolhatkar
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Steven A. Cohen changed Wall Street. He and his fellow pioneers of the hedge fund industry didn’t lay railroads, build factories, or invent new technologies. Rather, they made their billions through financial speculation, by placing bets in the market that turned out to be right more often than not.
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Amazing book about trading that feels like an adventure novel
- By Tim S on 05-24-18
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The Bond King
- How One Man Made a Market, Built an Empire, and Lost It All
- By: Mary Childs
- Narrated by: Mary Childs
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Before Bill Gross was known among investors as the Bond King, he was a gambler. In 1966, a fresh college grad, he went to Vegas armed with his net worth ($200) and a knack for counting cards. Ten thousand dollars and countless casino bans later, he was hooked, so he enrolled in business school. The Bond King is the story of how that whiz kid made American finance his casino.
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Being a good writer does not make you a good narrator
- By John Mallory on 05-14-22
By: Mary Childs
What listeners say about Number Go Up
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- Brandon Lee
- 10-13-23
A Crypto Journey
I enjoyed the gonzo journalism style as the author trekked around the planet looking for answers to a question he didn't know how to ask. I follow the daily scams and hacks in "Web3", and still found this book enlightening about many aspects of its seedy underbelly.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Shantanu Sharma
- 11-22-23
Compelling cautionary tale of BS masquerading as “money”
I have never invested in crypto because I never quite got the point of it. After a particularly good episode of the Prof G podcast, I finally understood that it is just another asset class being sold everywhere as “currency”. This is such an excellent book that should serve as a cautionary tale for those thinking of putting their money in it. It is also very darkly funny and the author captures the absurdity of the whole thing very nicely. Excellent narration too.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Judy L. Bourget MD Inc.
- 11-11-23
I don’t feel so dumb now
Well, written, well, narrated, and entertaining. I have always considered myself fairly intelligent, yet felt like an ignorant fool when talking to anybody about crypto. It seemed to me that they were just creating imaginary money. Apparently, I wasn’t that far off the mark.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Michael
- 10-05-23
Phenomenal story
This is a far better book than any others I’ve read (ie: Michael Lewis…) and correctly views the subject with objectivity and skepticism. When authors (Michael Lewis) get too close with their subjects they become incapable of writing the truth. Zeke is able to get close to certain crypto luminaries without losing his credibility, something most other books about crypto cannot say.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Debbie
- 10-16-23
NOT TO BE MISSED if you live in the 21st century!!
Crypto turns out to be not a dry subject after all! There are many facts, details and character profiles that make this book a great read; written in a way that won’t let you forget to pick it up again to finish the saga of the greatest scam ever.
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3 people found this helpful
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- slavik
- 10-12-23
Very entertaining even with zero crypto knowledge
This was very well written, researched and entertaining to read. I thought it would be difficult to keep up and understand the topics surrounding crypto but Zeke did a great job of breaking down and making it palatable. Recommend to anyone curious about crypto.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Matt B
- 10-12-23
A fantastic book on crypto!
This book was a great exploration and explanation of the crypto markets. I really appreciated how the author discussed some of the ancillary effects and enablement of crime syndicates. This is my first book from the author, but I'll definitely be back for more.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ian
- 10-30-23
Much More Comprehensive and Interesting Than I Expected
I bought this after finishing "Going Infinite" by Michael Lewis and feeling like there were still too many unanswered questions about SBFs role in the crypto ponzi schemes. Zeke does an excellent job providing more insight into the overall crypto economy while also providing arguably better information from his facetime with SBF. Instead of just listening to the hype men, he actually takes the time to address important questions about the "businesses" operate. Definitely recommend reading this in addition to Going Infinite to get a more balanced and critical perspective on the whole story. The video "Line Goes Up - the Problem with NFTs" by Dan Olson (Folding Ideas on YouTube) is also worth watching.
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- J. Hastings
- 12-13-23
Fabulous book.
Faux gives us a look inside of the world of crypto revealing the scam and the scammers. This is so fascinating that I listened start to finish twice.
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- Audrey A. Rohan
- 02-08-24
Good story
The author did a lot of leg work meeting key players and really trying to get to know crypto. I think he's probably a little too harsh on the whole thing because it makes for a better narrative- but it is a very compelling narrative. He also did a good job of painting a picture of the crypto community, even if I do also think he was a little harsh there too.
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