Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

＂A smart, savvy road map through the mayhem of the cryptocurrency madness.＂
--RON CHERNOW, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Alexander Hamilton

From ＂one of the crypto industry’s unlikely but most prominent critics＂ (Washington Post), an entertaining and well-researched account of the rise and fall of cryptocurrency.

At the height of the pandemic, TV star Ben McKenzie was the perfect mark for cryptocurrency: a dad stuck at home with some cash in his pocket, worried about his family, armed with only the vague notion that people were making heaps of money on something he--despite a degree in economics--didn’t entirely understand. Lured in by grandiose, utopian promises, and sure, a little bit of FOMO, McKenzie dove deep into blockchain, Bitcoin, and the various other coins and exchanges on which they are traded. But after scratching the surface, he had to ask, ＂Am I crazy, or is this all a total scam?＂

In Easy Money, McKenzie enlists the help of journalist Jacob Silverman for an investigative adventure into crypto and its remarkable crash. Weaving together stories of average traders and victims, colorful crypto ＂visionaries,＂ Hollywood’s biggest true believers, anti-crypto whistleblowers, and government operatives, Easy Money is an on-the-ground look at a perfect storm of irresponsibility and criminal fraud. Based on original reporting across the country and abroad, including interviews with Sam Bankman-Fried, Tether cofounder Brock Pierce, Celsius’s Alex Mashinsky, and more, this is the book on cryptocurrency you’ve been waiting for.

Ben McKenzie has been a fixture on TV for more than two decades, first capturing audiences in the pop culture phenomenon The O.C. Most recently, he played the lead role on Fox’s hit series Gotham, on which he also directed and wrote episodes. He recently appeared in Amazon’s political drama The Torture Report, and in 2020, he starred in Grand Horizons, which received a Tony Award nomination for Best New Play. McKenzie graduated magna cum laude from the University of Virginia with degrees in economics and foreign affairs. Jacob Silverman is a journalist writing about technology and national security for the New Republic. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, the Los Angeles Times, BookForum, Politico, and many other publications. In April 2012, he was a three-day Jeopardy! champion. Both live in Brooklyn, New York.