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Author Michael Lewis has been following former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried around for the past six months and will write a book about the crypto maven known as “SBF,” a new report says.
News that the author who wrote “The Big Short” and “Moneyball” was writing about FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried was first reported by The Ankler, after the newsletter published a copy of an email reportedly from CAA that was sent to potential buyers for TV rights to the book.
See also: Why do people invest in crypto? ‘It’s partly fraud and partly delusion,’ says Charlie Munger
Lewis’s book will highlight the rivalry between Bankman-Fried and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, the email says, and compare the strife between the two to Star Wars characters Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.
The email also states that Lewis has not yet written the book, but “the story has become too big for us to wait.”
Lewis’s agency, CAA, and his book publishing house W. W. Norton & Company, did not respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment on this story.
See also: Tom Brady, Steph Curry and Kevin O’Leary set to lose big from FTX bankruptcy filing
Back in August, months before FTX’s bankruptcy filing, Lewis gave clues to the Financial News about the topic for his upcoming book. “I really don’t want to reveal exactly what I’m writing about,” Lewis said. “But I found a character through whom I can write about.”
“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,” Lewis continued.
If the Ankler report is accurate, it appears the person Lewis was discussing may have been Bankman-Fried.
FTX paused withdrawals last week amid a multibillion liquidity crunch. Rival crypto exchange Binance was interested in a takeover of FTX prior to the bankruptcy filing, but opted against the move and called FTX’s financial problems “beyond our control or ability to help.”
Binance’s Zhao — a Chinese-Canadian executive commonly identified as “CZ” — founded the crypto exchange in 2017. Binance is now the world’s largest crypto exchange by 24-hour trading volume, compared with FTX, which ranked third prior to its bankruptcy filing, according to CoinMarketCap.
See also: ‘I f—d up’: Sam Bankman-Fried takes blame for liquidity issues at FTX
Bankman-Fried saw his net worth plummet billions after FTX’s financial collapse, and some famous FTX equity holders, including Tom Brady, Steph Curry and Kevin O’Leary, may also lose big from FTX’s bankruptcy.
Bankman-Fried took the blame for FTX’s recent bankruptacy in a tweet last week. “I’m really sorry, again, that we ended up here,” he said. “Hopefully things can find a way to recover.”
Bitcoin
BTCUSD,
prices dropped to their lowest level in two years last week, and the price for ether
ETHUSD,
is down over 70% over the past year.
