Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall

by Zeke Faux

every day, people sent millions of perfectly good U.S. dollars to the Inspector Gadget creator’s Bahamian bank in exchange for digital tokens conjured by the Mighty Ducks guy and run by executives who were targets of a U.S. criminal investigation.

Among their complaints were that he was a bad manager, failed to keep track of important details, and was so aggressive about trying to make a giant score that he overlooked what could have been consistent profits.

“I honestly think it’s negative EV for me to cut my hair,” Bankman-Fried said, citing expected value as always, according to the colleague’s memory of the conversation. “I think it’s important for people to think I look crazy.”

This is a detail that’s totally missing from Lewis - SBF knows how he looks and thinks it operates to his advantage!

Lewis said he knew next to nothing about cryptocurrency. But he seemed quite confident that it was great. The writer said that, contrary to popular opinion, crypto was not well suited for crime. He posited that U.S. regulators were hostile to the industry because they’d been brainwashed or bought off by established Wall Street banks.

Lewis made a lot of hay about Faux calling him "gushing" but these remarks are incredibly damning

I asked one coder if crypto would ever be helpful for regular people. “Why is it that you think that is important?” he said to me, in a tone of total sincerity. “I really would like to know.”

Bankman-Fried was telling me that the billions of dollars customers wired to Alameda was gone simply because the companies spent way more than they made.

A better explanation than Lewis delivers!