Crypto Crackup: Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX, and SBF's Weird Island Empire

A gripping account of the dramatic life of the man once dubbed crypto’s “J.P. Morgan”—from his meteoric ascent to the epic crash of FTX, his arrest, and indictment.


Sam Bankman-Fried—better known as SBF—was at the top of the world and lauded as a leading figure in cryptocurrency, an industry whose popularity has exploded over the past few years. He was being compared to the legendary financier J.P. Morgan and sometimes even rumored to have the potential to become the world’s first trillionaire. He built a crypto empire with trading firm Alameda Research and crypto exchange FTX, which became one of the world’s largest. He attracted leading investors and walked the corridors of power in Congress. Then, seemingly within days, everything collapsed. FTX went bankrupt, and SBF was arrested, extradited from the Bahamas to the United States, and charged with multiple counts of fraud and other criminal offenses. The world was gripped but left wondering: How did SBF burst onto the scene and take the crypto world by storm only to come crashing down? What makes his case so special? And what does effective altruism have to do with it?

Crypto Crackup explores his early days—his road from traditional finance to setting up Alameda and FTX, to the massive crash that swept both away and left SBF potentially facing decades in prison.

Crypto Crackup will help you better understand SBF’s spectacular journey, even if you know little to nothing about crypto. If you want to understand more about SBF, how FTX’s bankruptcy left a mess that’s been described as “worse than Enron,” and why so much of this played out on Twitter—this book is for you.