Number Go Up
by Zeke Faux · 2023
A Bloomberg reporter set out to find the one real business in crypto and mostly found Ponzi schemes wearing better branding.
Worth reading? Pair this with Going Infinite and the contrast is the point: Lewis got close to Sam Bankman-Fried and came away relatively sympathetic; Faux went in already skeptical and came away convinced most of crypto -- not just FTX -- runs on the same "number go up" logic with little underneath it. If you want the more skeptical, boots-on-the-ground account of the same era, this is the sharper choice. Read it if you want a reporter's actual travel-and-interview investigation into whether crypto has real underlying value, especially the Tether stablecoin thread that runs through the whole book. Skip it if you want balanced pro/con coverage -- Faux went looking for fraud and found plenty, and the book doesn't pretend otherwise.
| Full Title | Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall |
|---|---|
| Author | Zeke Faux |
| Published | 2023 |
| Publisher | Crown Currency |
| Category | Business & Money |
| Favorite quote | “Our whole industry is based on the greater fool theory.” |
The Verdict
Faux went looking for one real, working business in crypto and mostly came back with the same story wearing different logos: a coin, an influencer, and a crowd betting the number keeps going up. The Tether thread alone is worth the read.
you want a skeptical, on-the-ground investigation of crypto's biggest names -- Tether, FTX, and the industry's own hype machine
you're already fully bought into crypto as a technology thesis -- this book has a strong, reported point of view and isn't neutral
Book Summary
Faux set out to answer a simple question: is there a real business anywhere in crypto, or is it "number go up technology" -- value created purely by convincing more people to buy in, with no underlying product? His reporting trip took him from El Salvador's Bitcoin experiment to the Philippines' play-to-earn gaming crash to the Bahamas offices of FTX, and the answer he kept finding was closer to the latter.
Tether -- the "stablecoin" that claims to be backed 1-for-1 by dollar reserves and quietly underpins most crypto trading volume -- becomes the book's central thread. Faux's investigation into whether Tether's reserves are real is less a side plot than the book's spine, since if Tether isn't fully backed, a huge share of the entire crypto market is built on an unverified claim.
The book's larger argument is that crypto's growth was driven less by genuine technological utility than by a self-reinforcing hype loop: influencers, celebrity endorsements, and a "number go up" story that only required enough new buyers to keep pushing the price higher, right up until it didn't.
Top 9 Lessons from Number Go Up
- 'Number go up' describes crypto's core pitch: price increases became the product, detached from any underlying utility.
- Tether's stablecoin claims to be fully backed by dollar reserves, and verifying that claim is harder than it should be for something this large.
- A huge share of crypto trading volume runs through Tether, so doubts about its reserves are doubts about the whole market's foundation.
- Play-to-earn games like Axie Infinity relied on new player money to pay existing players -- a structure indistinguishable from a Ponzi scheme.
- El Salvador's Bitcoin adoption experiment produced far less real-world usage than its public messaging suggested.
- Celebrity endorsements and influencer marketing did more to inflate crypto prices than any actual product development.
- Access to founders and insiders often revealed more improvisation and sloppiness than sophisticated technology.
- The same reporting trip that took Faux to crypto's biggest hype centers also led him straight to FTX before its collapse.
- Crypto's boom-bust cycles reward the earliest buyers and punish the last ones in almost every case Faux investigated.
Top 2 Quotes from Number Go Up
"Our whole industry is based on the greater fool theory."
Zeke Faux, Number Go Up
"It was, as far as I could tell, number go up technology. That's it. That's the tech."
Zeke Faux, Number Go Up
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Number Go Up worth reading?
Yes, if you want a skeptical, reported investigation into whether crypto has real substance behind it. Skip it if you want neutral or bullish coverage -- Faux's reporting leans hard skeptical throughout.
What is the main idea of Number Go Up?
Faux argues most of crypto's value was driven by hype and a self-reinforcing 'number go up' narrative rather than real underlying technology or products, with Tether's unverified reserves at the center of the risk.
Who should read Number Go Up?
Anyone who wants a reporter's ground-level investigation of crypto's biggest names, especially readers who want the skeptical counterweight to more sympathetic accounts.
How does Number Go Up compare to Going Infinite?
Both cover the same crypto era and even overlap on FTX, but Faux is openly skeptical throughout while Lewis's Going Infinite takes a more sympathetic, character-driven approach to Sam Bankman-Fried specifically.
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