The cover of the book felt like 'yet another crypto exposé'. I was wrong.
This book turned out to be something much better. Instead of rehashing how coins work or cataloging the endless scams, Zeke focuses on the people and colorful personalities behind crypto. That human angle made all the difference compared to the overdone tech coverage we've all seen. The book takes an interesting non-linear chronological approach while maintaining a unifying thread: is all of crypto really just a house of cards?
The financial data, ways of tracing money (or the lack thereof), human emotions, the labyrinthine complexity of global finance, and the sheer absurdity of the crypto this book weaves it all together.
Zeke starts investigating the huge opaque mess by focusing on crypto's most visible parts: BTC, ETH, and a few stablecoins, particularly Tether. It's clear he has this gut feeling that the whole industry is mostly smoke and mirrors. He digs deep into Tether since it's the coin most exchanges use as a hedge and accept as security for other coins and borrowings.
Here's the kicker though: we all know about the recent crypto crash and how most scams have slowed down. But the coin Zeke suspected most, Tether still maintains its peg to the USD and holds that $1 value, while everything around it collapsed to various degrees.
The book offers substantial insights into the "meta" of the crypto industry. Even if you're only moderately interested in finance or crypto, this take on the crypto industry makes it worth the read. Sometimes the most suspicious survivor tells the most interesting story.