B's Reviews > Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
by
Lewis is in his element in this book (perhaps second only to his Liar’s Poker in quality) analyzing the meteoric rise and fall of the youngest billionaire of the era, the cryptocurrency mogul Sam Blankman-Fried. Though it is hard to assume he is an impartial bystander –admittedly, he has been in close contact with the protagonist for quite some time, Lewis depicts the events that culminate with the FTX becoming a powerhouse and coming crashing down relatively shortly thereafter when the $8 billion was famously found to be missing/unaccounted for.
Lewis starts his story from the childhood of the main protagonist, where the reader gets a glimpse into the mindset of the socially awkward and unsympathetic boy who seems to be drawn to just about any “game” that is dynamic in nature and carries ever-changing rules. Hence, the interest in cryptocurrency trading later on. Interestingly, and unlike many of his peer traders, Sam, while trading at Jane Street (a Wall Street firm that capitalizes on arbitrage in many ways) learns about Peter Singer’s altruistic philosophy and finds himself drawn to “effective altruism.”
Lewis, a seasoned financial writer, does a splendid job in explaining some of the inner workings of the arbitrage trades –my favourite being the trade that involved Ripple (a lesser known, and therefore, regulated cryptocurrency) to go around the stringent South Korean regulations to make money off Bitcoin. He also explains the reason that made FTX so appealing to those who wanted to trade cryptocurrency. For one, the company, instead of the traditional “socialization of losses” among the exchange users when trades went bad by the end of the day, closing the customer’s trade instantly thanks to real-time monitoring. Another selling point was Sam’s ambitious plan to enable the exchange as the “most regulated, most law-abiding crypto exchange.”
Lewis also captures well the essence of the problem that brought down the FTX, and Sam with it. “It was never clear where Alameda Research stopped and FTX started.”
Yet, I have a few misgivings about this book. First, the inner workings of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are cursorily omitted. Admittedly, these may be a bit technical, and fly over the head of many readers, but I would have expected Lewis to try to provide some sort of a primer, at the very least. Second, Lewis fails to provide the missing (and crucial!) link how Sam, a socially awkward boy, was able to entice many investors into his own fund, Alameda Research. True, Lewis notes that he hired others to do the PR for him, but I still find it incredible how people can trust their billions with someone they have not even met. (Then again, I read another book (Bad Blood) where Elizabeth Holmes was able to siphon large funds from celebrities just as easily.) Third, the author, perhaps under the spell of the effective altruism narrative, finds himself too endeared to the protagonist, and seems to disculpate him naively and off-handedly for the missing funds.
Still, a very enjoyable read, as long as the reader knows he will not find all the answers to the missing parts to this still on-going saga (the trials are still on), most importantly: what happened to the missing $8 billion😊
by
Lewis is in his element in this book (perhaps second only to his Liar’s Poker in quality) analyzing the meteoric rise and fall of the youngest billionaire of the era, the cryptocurrency mogul Sam Blankman-Fried. Though it is hard to assume he is an impartial bystander –admittedly, he has been in close contact with the protagonist for quite some time, Lewis depicts the events that culminate with the FTX becoming a powerhouse and coming crashing down relatively shortly thereafter when the $8 billion was famously found to be missing/unaccounted for.
Lewis starts his story from the childhood of the main protagonist, where the reader gets a glimpse into the mindset of the socially awkward and unsympathetic boy who seems to be drawn to just about any “game” that is dynamic in nature and carries ever-changing rules. Hence, the interest in cryptocurrency trading later on. Interestingly, and unlike many of his peer traders, Sam, while trading at Jane Street (a Wall Street firm that capitalizes on arbitrage in many ways) learns about Peter Singer’s altruistic philosophy and finds himself drawn to “effective altruism.”
Lewis, a seasoned financial writer, does a splendid job in explaining some of the inner workings of the arbitrage trades –my favourite being the trade that involved Ripple (a lesser known, and therefore, regulated cryptocurrency) to go around the stringent South Korean regulations to make money off Bitcoin. He also explains the reason that made FTX so appealing to those who wanted to trade cryptocurrency. For one, the company, instead of the traditional “socialization of losses” among the exchange users when trades went bad by the end of the day, closing the customer’s trade instantly thanks to real-time monitoring. Another selling point was Sam’s ambitious plan to enable the exchange as the “most regulated, most law-abiding crypto exchange.”
Lewis also captures well the essence of the problem that brought down the FTX, and Sam with it. “It was never clear where Alameda Research stopped and FTX started.”
Yet, I have a few misgivings about this book. First, the inner workings of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are cursorily omitted. Admittedly, these may be a bit technical, and fly over the head of many readers, but I would have expected Lewis to try to provide some sort of a primer, at the very least. Second, Lewis fails to provide the missing (and crucial!) link how Sam, a socially awkward boy, was able to entice many investors into his own fund, Alameda Research. True, Lewis notes that he hired others to do the PR for him, but I still find it incredible how people can trust their billions with someone they have not even met. (Then again, I read another book (Bad Blood) where Elizabeth Holmes was able to siphon large funds from celebrities just as easily.) Third, the author, perhaps under the spell of the effective altruism narrative, finds himself too endeared to the protagonist, and seems to disculpate him naively and off-handedly for the missing funds.
Still, a very enjoyable read, as long as the reader knows he will not find all the answers to the missing parts to this still on-going saga (the trials are still on), most importantly: what happened to the missing $8 billion😊
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Going Infinite.
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Reading Progress
January 19, 2024
– Shelved
Started Reading
January 21, 2024
–
Finished Reading