The Best Crypto Books of 2023

This past year brought a new glut of books. Unlike the ones published during crypto boom years, which pulse with a mix of greed and adulation, most of the 2023 titles came wrapped in a thick sheen of scorn—and understandably so given the spectacular frauds, epitomized by Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, that defined the industry’s most recent bust.

Here are Fortune Crypto’s picks for the three best crypto titles of the year: two of them monuments to crimes, and one a reminder that the broader blockchain industry is not only alive and well but becoming part of the mainstream financial system.

Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
By Michael Lewis

Star business writer Michael Lewis—whose bestsellers include Moneyball and The Big Short—enjoyed an unprecedented level of access to boy king Sam Bankman-Fried right up until his $32 billion empire unraveled in the space of a week.

The published version of Going Infinite is not what Lewis had intended to write, and, indeed, the first version of his manuscript cast Bankman-Fried as a sympathetic figure poised to change the world through the nebulous philosophy of effective altruism. The final text reflects how Lewis had to adapt his story upon learning that the young mogul’s tale was all a web of lies.

This abrupt pivot results in the last chapters of the book becoming an intellectual scramble as the author can’t quite forsake his one-time protagonist. But that doesn’t matter much given the incredible amount of mind-blowing details Lewis is able to reveal about Bankman-Fried, his family, and the bizarre, hypocritical lifestyle he forged while walking…