Celebrated non-fiction chronicler Michael Lewis is writing a book about cryptocurrency tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried, whose business imploded in spectacular fashion on Friday, forcing it to declare bankruptcy.
Lewis, 62, has spent the past six months shadowing 30-year-old Bankman-Fried, traveling with him and interviewing him extensively, it emerged on Friday.
His previous books The Big Short, Moneyball and The Blind Side turned into Hollywood blockbusters.
The Ankler first reported that literary agent Michael Snyder informed his contacts that Lewis had six months’ worth of material on Bankman-Fried – who feuded in spectacular style with Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao.
Zhao, head of the world’s largest bitcoin and crypto exchange, said last week he intended to rescue FTX, Bankman-Fried’s company, but then backed out, saying FTX was not stable.
Lewis likened the pair to Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.
‘Michael hasn’t written anything yet, but the story has become too big for us to wait,’ the agent said in his email.
Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short, Moneyball and The Blind Side, has for the last six months been interviewing Sam Bankman-Fried
FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (left) and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (right) were likened by Lewis to Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader
Snyder continued: ‘His childhood, early success on Wall Street, embrace of effective altruism and the creation of a crypto empire that catapulted him in record time into the ranks of the richest people in the world seemed more than sufficient for a signature Michael Lewis book.
‘Of course, the events of the past week have provided a dramatic surprise ending to the story.’
In August, Lewis discussed in broad terms his new book in an interview with Financial News.
‘I really don’t want to reveal exactly what I’m writing about,’ he said.
‘But I found a character through whom I can write about — it weirdly links up Flash Boys, The Big Short and Liar’s Poker.
‘I guess it is possible it will be framed as a crypto book, but it won’t be a crypto book.
‘It’ll be about this really unusual character. You’ll learn all about crypto and you’ll learn about what screwed up market structure in the United States and so on.’
FTX had a one-time valuation of $32 billion and substantial ties to the entertainment industry.
Adverts starring Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen, as well as Larry David, were widely promoted, and Steph Curry and Naomi Osaka were paid endorsers.
Bankman-Fried received numerous plaudits as he rapidly achieved superstar status as potentially the world’s first trillionaire.
Born in Stanford, California, he had founded FTX in 2019, and it grew rapidly – it was recently valued at $32 billion.
The son of Stanford University professors, who was known to play the video game ‘League of Legends’ during meetings, Bankman-Fried attracted investments from the highest echelons of Silicon Valley.
Up until last week, Bankman-Fried was seen as a white knight for the industry.
Whenever the crypto industry had one of its crises, Bankman-Fried was the person likely to fly in with a rescue plan.
When online trading platform Robinhood was in financial straits earlier this year – collateral damage from the decline in stock and crypto prices – Bankman-Fried jumped in to buy a stake in the company as a sign of support.
When Bankman-Fried bought up the assets of bankrupt crypto firm Voyager Digital for $1.4 billion this summer, it brought a sense of relief to Voyager account holders, whose assets have been frozen since its own failure. That rescue is now in question.
As king of crypto, his influence was starting to pour into political and popular culture.
FTX bought prominent sports sponsorships with Formula Racing and the naming rights to an arena in Miami.
Bankman-Fried is seen in December testifying to the House Financial Services Committee hearing titled Digital Assets and the Future of Finance: Understanding the Challenges and Benefits of Financial Innovation in the United States
He pledged to donate $1 billion toward Democrats this election cycle – his actual donations were in the tens of millions – and prominent politicians like Bill Clinton were invited to speak at FTX conferences.
Sequoia Capital, which invested in Apple, Cisco, Google, Airbnb and YouTube, described their meeting with Bankman-Fried as likely ‘talking to the world’s first trillionaire.’
Sequoia enthusiastically invested in FTX after one Zoom meeting in 2021.
‘I don’t know how I know, I just do. SBF is a winner,’ Sequoia Capital’s Adam Fisher, wrote in a profile of Bankman-Fried for the firm, referring to Bankman-Fried by his popular online moniker.
The article, published in late September, was removed from Sequoia’s website.
Sequoia has written down its $213 million in investments to zero.
A pension fund in Ontario, Canada wrote down its investment to zero as well.
In a terse statement, the Ontario Teachers´ Pension Fund said, ‘Naturally, not all of the investments in this early-stage asset class perform to expectations.’
Bankman-Fried had been the subject of some criticism before FTX collapsed.
Elon Musk also shared a crude meme that depicted Bankman-Fried as the star of a pornographic film titled ‘Man F***s 5 Million People At Once’
While he largely operated FTX out of U.S. jurisdiction from his headquarters in The Bahamas, Bankman-Fried was increasingly vocal about the need for more regulation of the cryptocurrency industry.
Many supporters of crypto oppose government oversight.
Now, FTX’s collapse may have helped make the case for stricter regulation.
One of those critics was Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao.
The feud between the two billionaires spilled out onto Twitter, where Zhao and Bankman-Fried collectively commanded millions of followers.
Zhao helped kickstart the withdrawals that doomed FTX when he said Binance would sell its holdings in FTX’s crypto token FTT.