H'wood FTX Frenzy as Michael Lewis Reveals He Spent 6 Months with Founder - The Ankler.

WHOOPS Sam Bankman-Fried testified earlier Congress successful May. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

In this issue:

• The afloat CAA email reveals Michael Lewis’ adjacent publication is astir Sam Bankman-Fried with astatine slightest 1 crippled constituent focusing connected the rivalry with Binance’s Changpeng Zhao

• The relation of erstwhile CAA cause (and Elon Musk pal) Michael Kives with Bankman-Fried

  Share

With the stunning collapse of crypto speech FTX still rippling done the fiscal markets, the amusement manufacture sprang into enactment implicit the play with a acold much pressing concern: Who’s going to nab the rights to this story?

We present cognize astatine slightest 1 portion of however this plays out. The municipality was abuzz Saturday aft an email dispersed that revealed that Michael Lewis — the astir talented and palmy non-fiction writer moving contiguous — had embedded with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried for the past six months and was making the collapsing cryptocurrency exchange the centerpiece of his adjacent book. The Ankler obtained the email from CAA cause Matthew Snyder, primitively sent to imaginable buyers connected Friday (CAA did not instantly instrumentality a petition for comment). The email reveals that not a connection of the publication has been written yet but, well, things conscionable can’t wait:

The email from Snyder:

Share

In August, Lewis hinted about his caller publication successful an interview with Financial News.

“I really don’t privation to uncover precisely what I’m penning about,” helium said “But I found a quality done whom I tin constitute astir — it weirdly links up Flash Boys, The Big Short and Liar’s Poker.

“I conjecture it is imaginable it volition beryllium framed arsenic a crypto book, but it won’t beryllium a crypto book. It’ll beryllium astir this truly antithetic character. You’ll larn each astir crypto and you’ll larn astir what screwed up marketplace operation in the United States and truthful on.”

For those keeping score, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, had agreed to instrumentality implicit FTX, the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, astatine the commencement of past week aft FTX was incapable to process lawsuit withdrawals amid panic astir some the crypto markets and Bankman-Fried’s reported co-mingling of assets betwixt FTX and his hedge fund. In a shocking twist, Binance backed retired of the woody citing “corporate owed diligence” mounting the signifier for FTX’s bankruptcy filing and Bankman-Fried’s resignation arsenic CEO. 

FTX had a one-time valuation of $32 cardinal and important ties to the amusement industry. Then-spouses Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen, arsenic good arsenic Larry David, memorably starred successful much-ridiculed spots hawking the company. Steph Curry and Naomi Osaka likewise were paid endorsers.

Industry insiders likewise also have been speculating astir the interaction of FTX bankruptcy connected 1 of their own: erstwhile CAA cause Michael Kives.

Share