While the storylines in crypto have gone quieter, coin prices have not.
Zeke Faux is the author of Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall. Motley Fool host Mary Long caught up with Faux for a conversation about:
- The most genuine argument for crypto adoption.
- Why more politicians have warmed up to the space.
- What you have to believe to be a Bitcoin maximalist.
- A shoestring crypto operation that’s more profitable than Nike.
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This video was recorded on Nov. 10, 2024.
Zeke Faux: They’re sitting on $100 billion. It’s earning 5% interest, and it’s like a real shoestring operation. There’s not that many people that work there. They’re making more than $5 billion a year, and have been the real winners of crypto lately. Tether is more profitable than Nike.
Ricky Mulvey: I’m Ricky Mulvey, and that’s Zeke Faux. He’s the author of Number Go Up inside crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall. The book was one of my favorites of 2023, and Faux is just an incredible storyteller. I’m delighted that he joined us again on Motley Fool Money. This time to check in on the crypto space with my colleague Mary Long. They discuss how the crypto industry continues to tell a compelling narrative about its future, the most useful thing that people are using digital currencies for and how meme coins catch on. As a heads up, this conversation was recorded on Monday, November 4th before the election.
Mary Long: Zeke I really wanted to talk with you because I’ve noticed what feels to be a bit like a paradox in the crypto universe. I am admittedly a more casual observer of crypto markets, but it seems like that world has gone quiet in the two years post-FTX. But while I’m sitting over here thinking, oh, crypto’s gone quiet, you actually look at the prices of these things, and they’ve handily outpaced the S&P 500. How can both of those things be true? Has crypto really gone quiet or is something else happening here?
Zeke Faux: It’s really weird. Back in November 2022, when FTX failed, I was down with Sam Bankman-Fried interviewing him in the Bahamas about what had gone wrong, and it felt like it was time to write an obituary for this whole crypto market. The face of crypto had been discredited as a fraud. Yet, pretty much most coin prices are back up to their highs, and it feels to me like there’s not the same level of buzz, behind it as there was last time. No one’s talking about Web 3. No one’s saying, oh, we need to put Taylor Swift tickets on the blockchain to stop scalping or showing off their hot new NFT. But the prices are back up on. The big buzz was around the Bitcoin ETF, and that was hyped as this big milestone for the market. But if you think about it, it’s not really that new. It’s just a different way to buy Bitcoin, and there’s already so many. But the crypto industry is really great at creating this narrative that crypto is the future, is right around the corner. The big money is about to come in, and it’s still early, so you should get in too.
