The baffling rise and spectacular implosion of cryptocurrency has been one of the more interesting, and confusing, phenomenon of the past decade. Speaking as a reasonably online individual who lived through it, it seemed like Bitcoin, the Block Chain, NFT’s and those hideous ape jpegs were everywhere and suddenly, silence. After years of hearing how the shiny new crypto-whatever was going to somehow change the world, the whole house of cards seemed to collapse with hardly a whimper.

That’s where a book like this comes in. The author begins by investigating one simple question, does Tether (one of the countless crypto currencies) actually have a one to one backing based on U.S. dollars like the company claims? This seemingly simple question (never satisfactorily answered, although “signs point to no”) leads down a rabbit hole of exaggeration, fraud, duplicity, and lots and lots of money evaporating. The author has a real talent for synthesizing complex and disparate information in service of a compelling narrative. A story like this could have very easily gotten lost in the weeds but, like a well done documentary, a central theme and one core story remain central throughout. In reading this book I was educated, entertained, and left with a better understanding of some of the highlights of Crypto’s spectacular rise and fall.