During an otherwise slow news week, CoinDesk published an essay with the clever title “The End of the End of Crypto” that underscored how, though crypto has been pronounced dead many times over the years, it persists nonetheless. The topic feels timely, especially at a time when the publishing industry is in the midst of cashing in on the latest downturn with a spate of titles that ridicule the gross folly and excesses of the 2021 bubble.
Those titles include Easy Money and the soon-to-be released Number Go Up, which features archcriminal Sam Bankman-Fried on its cover. Soon, they will be joined by Michael Lewis’s Going Infinite, which is based on the star author’s monthslong access to Bankman-Fried and reportedly began in the same vein as Flash Boys and The Big Short—tales of iconoclasts brave enough to buck the conventional wisdom of the financial industry—but was then revised in the wake of the FTX founder’s spectacular downfall.
Fortune will provide proper reviews of the three titles in coming weeks, but for now it’s worth noting that, based on a partial read of the first two, they offer utter disdain for the crypto industry and everyone involved in it. This is not unreasonable. Given recent history, it really is hard to imagine an industry that has fueled more egregious scams or that is populated with more awful, unlikable people whose favorite retort to skeptics was “have fun staying poor.” And even here at Fortune Crypto, it’s often felt our reporting duties have shifted from technology and economics to the criminal justice system.
All of this suggests that the “end of crypto” has arrived for real this time, and that anyone involved in the industry should fold their cards and pivot toward A.I. or pickleball or whatever. My take, unsurprisingly, is the same one I’ve made before: Avoid using current events to make final pronouncements on crypto one way or the other. Just as it was folly to cite $69,000 Bitcoin as proof we were on the cusp of a new age of blockchain-based utopia, it’s silly to dismiss the entire crypto industry as the province of hucksters and scammers.
The reality is that Bitcoin is nearly 15 years old and has established itself as a permanent currency that is more valuable than the ones created by many nation states. Meanwhile, recent improvements in Ethereum show the dream of a decentralized global computing system is more alive than ever. At the same time, the crypto industry continues to foster innovative advances in computer science and privacy. None of this is going to go away in response to adverse publicity.
Jeff John Roberts
jeff.roberts@fortune.com
@jeffjohnroberts
DECENTRALIZED NEWS
A new startup, Dinari, backed by Susquehanna and Balaji Srinivasan, registered as a broker dealer and a transfer agent as part of a bid to sell tokenized versions of big-name stocks like Disney and Tesla. (Bloomberg)
Coinbase’s offshore derivatives exchange is gaining traction, with daily volume near $300 million last week, though it’s unclear for now how much this could help the firm’s bottom line. (The Block)
London-based credit card processor Checkout cut off Binance, once its largest customer, amid growing scrutiny from regulators. (Forbes)
Litecoin, XRP, and Bitcoin Cash were among the cryptocurrencies hit hardest during last week’s big selloff. (Fortune)
A media outlet told ChatGPT to invest $20,000 in crypto, resulting in the A.I. program making a modest return from its strategy of 40% Bitcoin, 40% Ethereum, and 20% alts. (Yahoo Finance)
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