Number Go Up

Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall

By: Zeke Faux

Narrated by: Dan Bittner

Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

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 Porchlight 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 Audio

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

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.

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.

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.

Fantastic book

This book is the most comprehensive, accurate account of crypto told in a way that makes it understandable and humorous.

Funny and well written

Number Go Up is an entertaining take on crypto from the perspective of a thinking person. If you’re sick of reading credulous accounts of crypto with their ever-changing claims of its magic, I think you’ll enjoy this book.

Well written!

Well written. Really was unsure if I wanted to read about crypto. Glad I did.

Fantastic book start to finish

Best telling of the story of crypto that I have ever heard. Zeke Faux’s reportage is amazing.

Essential Reading on the Fraud Called Crypto

I loved Zeke Faux’ s voice and the way he made an ostensibly complicated story into a compelling tale of deception and fraud as old as time. I’ve always been a crypto skeptic given that nobody had ever shown a use case for the “fantastic technology” beyond fraud, money laundering or drug dealing or some combination thereof. And I remember well being frustrated by serious people’s efforts to “make crypto happen” even bullying governments the world over into taking it seriously. This book is the one I wish I could have had in my hands during all those conversations I had with true believers…amazing read!

The book going infinite should have been.

A thorough, informative, and interesting read. After being somewhat disappointed by Michael Lewis’s going infinite this book felt like the fuller, truer story.

The most captivating audiobook I’ve ever heard

Cleanly written, informative, and funny. A worldwide romp that was educational and ridiculous. Highly recommended.