Zeke Faux

The 16th episode of Read the Bull is a fascinating discussion with Zeke Faux, a Bloomberg investigative reporter and author of the best selling book, "Number Go Up."

Cryptocurrency is ubiquitous. You can't escape the endless news coverage on the price of crypto, or hearing your college friends talk about that one friend who made a killing buying DOGE coin. The slang associated with it seems juvenile, but people are making real money trading it, and its value is zooming once again on the heels of Donald Trump's victory, as investors anticipate a regulatory-friendly regime. But how does it really work and what are its real-world applications?

Zeke wanted out to answer those questions and sets out to explore the real-world uses of Crypto.  His reporting takes him around the world to the Bahamas, Switzerland, El Salvador, Cambodia, the Philippines and Vietnam. 

The book, published last year by Crown Publishing, is an exhaustive look at the world of cryptocurrency and the people behind it, but Stefan learns that the book has an auspicious genesis. Zeke's speciality is writing about financial fraud, but his interest in the topic is piqued when one of his friends starts bragging about making money in what he called Doggie coin. Zeke sets out to show his friend that DOGE coin and other cryptocurrencies  

His journey into the crypto world starts by looking into the popular stable-coin Tether and its founders. Searching for the people who started Tether is easier said than done, but along the way Zeke is quickly introduced to crypto's world of oddball characters - scammers, zealots, an actor from the Mighty Ducks and the creator of Inspector Gadget. 

It also includes Sam Bankman Fried, the founder of FTX and now convicted felon. Zeke was introduced to SBF early on and attended his star-studded Bahamas  crypto conference. Later, when the FTX and Alameda Research fraud unwind, Zeke heads back to the Bahamas and scores an interview with SBF that spans 11 hours. 

Zeke finds that Tether is heavily used by criminals and he follows the trail to Cambodia where he interviews people who have been lured to country with he promise of high-paying customer service jobs and then are trapped in pig butchering farms, where they're forced to scam unwitting targets around the world.

Stefan's impressed by Zeke's commitment to his subject, noting the time he had to tell his wife he had purchase a $20,000 mutant cartoon ape in order to get into a week-long the NFT event. 

Zeke skepticism about cryptocurrency's use only grows after his investigations. While acknowledging that crypto prices have rebounded since the 2022 crash and FTX's collapse, he argues there's no real innovation justifying these higher values. 

"Number Go Up" is a wild-ride that seems more like a science-fiction novel, but readers will learn more about cryptocurrency and how its used than any other book out there.

This is a conversation you don't want to miss.

Go to ReadTheBull.com for more information.