CRYPTOBALL
The New Yorker|October 16, 2023
Michael Lewis’ big contrarian bet on Sam Bankman-Fried.
GIDEON LEWIS-KRAUS
CRYPTOBALL

Almost immediately after the cryptocurrency exchange FTX imploded last November, an agent e-mailed Hollywood buyers to reveal that the writer Michael Lewis just happened to have spent the previous six months hanging around Sam Bankman-Fried. Lewis, the agent noted, “hadn’t written anything yet,” but the recent developments had provided “a dramatic surprise ending to the story.” Nobody would have argued that point. But Lewis didn’t appear to regard this unexpected climax the way everyone else did. According to the agent, the writer had likened Bankman-Fried’s archrival, Changpeng Zhao—who had helped set in motion the bank run that brought FTX down—to “the Darth Vader of crypto” and Bankman-Fried to Luke Skywalker. This might not have been a particularly weird thing to say a month earlier. But it was a very weird thing to say at a moment when Bankman-Fried’s alleged misdeeds had made him not simply the “main character” on Twitter but in much of the actual world. Bankman-Fried stood accused of having defrauded his exchange’s customers of something like eight billion dollars, which he had apparently used to prop up his flailing crypto-trading firm, Alameda Research. Furthermore, he had funnelled, or attempted to funnel, his illicit gains into all sorts of nonsense: naming rights to stadiums, Bahamian luxury real estate, a Pacific island where his confederates might ride out one minor apocalypse or another.

Bu hikaye The New Yorker dergisinin October 16, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

Bu hikaye The New Yorker dergisinin October 16, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

THE NEW YORKER DERGISINDEN DAHA FAZLA HIKAYETümünü görüntüle
GET IT TOGETHER
The New Yorker

GET IT TOGETHER

In the beginning was the mob, and the mob was bad. In Gibbon’s 1776 “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” the Roman mob makes regular appearances, usually at the instigation of a demagogue, loudly demanding to be placated with free food and entertainment (“bread and circuses”), and, though they don’t get to rule, they sometimes get to choose who will.

time-read
10+ dak  |
November 25, 2024
GAINING CONTROL
The New Yorker

GAINING CONTROL

The frenemies who fought to bring contraception to this country.

time-read
10+ dak  |
November 25, 2024
REBELS WITH A CAUSE
The New Yorker

REBELS WITH A CAUSE

In the new FX/Hulu series “Say Nothing,” life as an armed revolutionary during the Troubles has—at least at first—an air of glamour.

time-read
5 dak  |
November 25, 2024
AGAINST THE CURRENT
The New Yorker

AGAINST THE CURRENT

\"Give Me Carmelita Tropicana!,\" at Soho Rep, and \"Gatz,\" at the Public.

time-read
5 dak  |
November 25, 2024
METAMORPHOSIS
The New Yorker

METAMORPHOSIS

The director Marielle Heller explores the feral side of child rearing.

time-read
10+ dak  |
November 25, 2024
THE BIG SPIN
The New Yorker

THE BIG SPIN

A district attorney's office investigates how its prosecutors picked death-penalty juries.

time-read
10+ dak  |
November 25, 2024
THIS ELECTION JUST PROVES WHAT I ALREADY BELIEVED
The New Yorker

THIS ELECTION JUST PROVES WHAT I ALREADY BELIEVED

I hate to say I told you so, but here we are. Kamala Harris’s loss will go down in history as a catastrophe that could have easily been avoided if more people had thought whatever I happen to think.

time-read
2 dak  |
November 25, 2024
HOLD YOUR TONGUE
The New Yorker

HOLD YOUR TONGUE

Can the world's most populous country protect its languages?

time-read
10+ dak  |
November 25, 2024
A LONG WAY HOME
The New Yorker

A LONG WAY HOME

Ordinarily, I hate staying at someone's house, but when Hugh and I visited his friend Mary in Maine we had no other choice.

time-read
10+ dak  |
November 25, 2024
YULE RULES
The New Yorker

YULE RULES

“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point.”

time-read
6 dak  |
November 18, 2024