Going Infinite

Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon is a 2023 book by Michael Lewis about Sam Bankman-Fried, a fraudster who founded the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

[4] The book delves into the character of Bankman-Fried in detail, describing his relationships, portraying him as easily distracted, obsessed with games, slovenly, eccentric, and good at calculating probabilities.

[6][10] Recounting his time with Bankman-Fried after FTX collapsed and he was accused of a massive fraud, Lewis writes that as late as October 2022, one could have investigated the firm ad nauseam and still not suspected wrongdoing.

[7] Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik called the book "a textbook on the imperative need to approach a subject with a healthy helping of skepticism."

She writes that the book is not for those seeking a "definitive take" on Bankman-Fried's guilt or innocence, that it is "labyrinthine and downright arcane", and does not do an adequate job of explaining the intricacies of cryptocurrencies.

She argues that while there are fascinating passages, exactly "how this bizarre child-man was able to seduce so many people into following him around the world into unregulated, unhinged and possibly illegal enterprises remains a mystery.

He writes that Lewis "spends much of the end of the book second-guessing the choices and interpretations made by John Ray, the CEO appointed to run FTX after it went bankrupt, rather than drill down into the company's fraud (admittedly, no easy task).

In an interview with the New York Times, Lewis accused Faux of "trying to torpedo a rival book before it comes out", calling it "corrupt" and saying, "So who do I think is more skeevy, Sam or him?