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

　　一探這場令人目眩神迷的加密貨幣幻夢，看SBF等人如何將虛擬貨幣，化為數兆的真金白銀，又是什麼讓他們跌落神壇……
 
　　2021年加密貨幣開始成為投資主流，幾乎所有的大型投資基金都在瘋狂買入，名人們紛紛為其背書，媒體們也將加密貨幣追捧為金錢的未來形式。即便大多數人根本不清楚加密貨幣運作原理，甚至也根本不知道這究竟是個什麼東西，但管它是「狗狗幣」還是「柴犬幣」，這些加密貨幣名字再怪，難道不是只要有錢賺就好？
 
　　資深財金記者Zeke Faux注意到這股加密貨幣熱潮時，腦中瞬間浮現一個問題：這一切是否根本是場規模空前的信任遊戲？他出於好奇心展開的調查，帶他深入了解這個新的金融體系，並接觸到FTX交易平台破產案的主角，一個其貌不揚的29歲年輕人Sam Bankman-Fried(簡稱SBF)，以及更多幣圈騙局的詐欺者、空想家和一夕翻身的富豪們。
 
　　Faux一路循線追查到SBF擁有奢華別墅的巴哈馬──也就是他宣稱自己要用加密貨幣拯救世界的地方，設法登上了一艘圈內人士的遊艇，並透過購買價值2萬美金的NFT，獲得參加「ApeFest」的機會；當他來到薩爾瓦多，他看到了國家將資產作為賭注，大舉投資比特幣的下場；地球另一頭，位於亞洲的菲律賓，則有一群人相信一款類寶可夢手遊，能讓自己脫貧。更驚人的是，Faux追蹤一則詐騙簡訊來到柬埔寨，意外揭露由加密貨幣推動的人口販賣集團犯行……。
 
　　這部無比精彩、令人戰慄的報導作品，記錄下讓人咋舌的情節與野心，深入挖掘了加密貨幣背後的層層暗影，並帶讀者見證那些幻影破滅的時刻。(文/博客來編譯)

　　After years on the financial world's margins, crypto went mainstream in early 2021. Everybody was talking about it: giant investment funds were buying it, celebrities like Tom Brady and Justin Bieber endorsed it, and Washington bigwigs debated new regulations, as if it would be a permanent part of our financial system. It seemed like everyone knew someone who was bragging about their returns from Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and other bizarrely named "digital assets." FOMO spread: Was crypto the new path to financial freedom? It didn't seem to matter that hardly anyone knew how it worked. The longer prices went up and up, the harder it was to resist. To borrow a phrase from crypto parlance, the only thing that mattered was "number go up."

　　Observing this mania, Zeke Faux set out on a quest to pull back the curtain on the wizards behind this new financial machinery. He first set his sights on Tether, a digital currency dreamed up by a former child actor from the 1992 Disney film The Mighty Ducks. Tether had become crypto's de facto bank, with ＄69 billion pouring into it. Each Tether was supposedly backed by one dollar. But where was the money? Then, in 2022, the crypto bubble burst, and Tether's biggest customers started collapsing one by one. It culminated in November, when FTX-founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, a schlubby 29-year-old Fortune once suggested was "The Next Warren Buffett"-failed in spectacular fashion.

　　As he chases these intersecting storylines around the globe, Faux is driven by a nagging question: Is it all just a global confidence game of unprecedented proportions? In El Salvador, he finds a country reeling from the authoritarian president's decision to gamble its treasury on Bitcoin. A spam text message leads him to a crypto-fueled human-trafficking ring in Cambodia. In Lugano, Switzerland, he chases down the reclusive former plastic surgeon who runs Tether, and, in the Bahamas, Faux takes readers inside the glittering sadness, lies and delusion of SBF's luxury loft in the days after FTX's implosion.

　　Fueled by the absurd details and authoritative reporting that earned Faux the title "our great poet of crime" (Matt Levine), Number Go Up is a riveting account of the biggest financial mania the world has ever seen.