Going Infinite

This book is about the ultimate pyramid scheme, written largely from the perspective of someone who fell for it. Michael Lewis tells a story like nobody else. It is about Sam Bankman Fried, the crypto billionaire who is now in jail for defrauding everybody.

Only it was written before Fried was convicted, and some reviewers felt Lewis had himself been charmed and hoodwinked by Fried. But that’s precisely the reason I love this book: the author falls under the spell of a Silicon Valley accelerationist and techno-utopian.

We get to experience the logic of “effective altruism” and the cult of… show more.

First of all, I love everything Michael Lewis writes. But this might be his most engaging book yet. Told through the lens of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, this is an incredible story.

It’s a story that combines genius, brilliance, folly, technology, and crime that left me wondering whether SBF really did something terrible, or just got desperately unlucky. It guided me through Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial, its aftermath, and the bankruptcy of FTX with a part harsh judgment and part huge empathy.

SBF: Sam Bankman-Fried is a financial personality for the ages. I have found there is no better way to get into his head than through Michael Lewis’ captivating exposé, Going Infinite.

I came into this book with one opinion of SBF and came out with something completely different. If you want to understand Sam and wrap your hands around the collapse of FTX, you need to read Going Infinite. It might just change your view on not only Sam but also about crypto.

This is the story of Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX, the cryptocurrency sensation that fell as quickly as it rose.

It was a good read, although the author is sympathetic to SBF and overlooks a lot of his flaws. Given that SBF was just convicted of crimes, it’s an interesting background that will show you how crazy the crypto world really is, and how people with no idea how to run a company can be entrusted with billions…and lose it all.

This is the story – as Lewis knew it so far – of Sam Bankman-Fried and his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX.

Lewis is the chronicler par excellence of the financial dramas of our times. He has a gift for making Byzantine market practices intelligible and weaving them into a compelling read. At the time Lewis was writing, Bankman-Fried was facing fraud charges in the US. Lewis speculated that possibly his actions were not intentionally criminal - though the US court has now found him guilty. Moreover, FTX customers have so far been unable to retrieve billions of dollars.

This book is… show more.