Michael Lewis, the bestselling author of The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine and Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, has revealed that he has almost finished writing his book on Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange.
Lewis’s upcoming book about Bankman-Fried is titled, Going Infinite: the Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon. Lewis initially crossed paths with SBF in late 2021 after a friend had asked him to meet the FTX founder and get a read on him.
Speaking at the Bitcoin 2023 conference in Miami on May 19, Lewis didn’t offer a specific publishing date but indicated that he wants the book to drop around when SBF’s trial starts in October.
A quick search on Amazon does show, however, that the book has a tentative release date of Oct. 3.
Lewis was reportedly close to finishing the book just before FTX infamously imploded in November 2022. The subsequent criminal charges against SBF added an entirely new angle to the story behind the former billionaire crypto mogul.
The tales of SBF and FTX
Recounting the writing process while speaking at the Bitcoin conference, Lewis suggested that the FTX drama ultimately saved the book.
“I thought ‘I don’t have a book,” he said, adding:
“I had this conversation with a kind of person I used as a sounding board…and he said, ‘Your problem is you don’t have a third act. You have the first two acts, but you don’t have a third act.‘ And I said, ‘That’s absolutely right; I don’t know how to end it.‘ A week later, FTX blows up. I was so grateful.“
The author didn’t want to give a rundown of too many details in the book but said he was able to get a first hand-look at FTX’s meltdown as it happened.
“It aims to read like a piece of fiction,” he said, adding, “If you didn’t know anything about crypto. If you didn’t even know who Sam Bankman-Fried was. You might think, ‘this is just a made-up story.’”
Lewis also disclosed at the conference that he owns a modest amount of Bitcoin (BTC) locked up in the FTX bankruptcy.
Shite I’m tired sorry this is of course Michael Lewis!
— Joe Nakamoto (@JoeNakamoto) May 19, 2023
Given that Lewis provided an engaging and in-depth run of the key players and moments surrounding the 2008 housing bubble crisis in The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, his next book on SBF is bound to have some interesting insights.
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During his appearance at the conference, Lewis revealed he had interviewed people from SBF’s inner circle, FTX employees, and government officials in the Bahamas and the United States.
He has also had access to SBF for two years, with the FTX founder continuing to allow Lewis to interview him during his house arrest in Palo Alto, California.
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