SBF book ‘Going Infinite’ is a ‘glaringly incorrect representation of the facts’

Framework Ventures’ Anderson says author Michael Lewis knows how to sell books, but doesn’t understand the culture he’s writing about

article-image

Melnikov Dmitriy/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

The Michael Lewis book “Going Infinite” centers on the rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried and the failed FTX crypto exchange. It has been panned for its fawning portrayal of a “cute and quirky” genius who was just misunderstood, while presenting a deeply biased account of events. 

Framework Ventures co-founder Michael Anderson adds to the criticism, arguing that the author’s skewed version of reality just doesn’t seem to add up.

On the Bell Curve podcast (Spotify/Apple), Anderson says the book contains elements that create a “glaringly incorrect representation of the facts.” For one, he says that the author describes the failure of the FTX exchange as a “bank run.” 

“There can only be a bank run if you have under-collateralization in a system, because you don’t have all the money available to be able to pay people back,” he explains. “It was pretty clear that there was rotation from assets that they didn’t like into assets that they did like,” he says.

An exchange should consistently have sufficient value to back up all deposits, Anderson explains, “especially if you have a highly profitable business.”

“That’s how exchanges work,” he says. “That’s not how banks work.”

To protect against a bank run, banks must hold certain quantities of cash and Treasurys to ensure liquidity and to be able to backstop loans and balance sheets, Anderson explains. “That’s the business model of a bank,” he says. “A bank run is not possible with a one to one backed exchange, period. End of story.”

Read more from our opinion section: New Sam Bankman-Fried book ‘Going Infinite’ goes absolutely nowhere

Almost too perfectly incorrect

Another inaccuracy that the book suggests, Framework Ventures co-founder Vance Spencer adds, is the notion that the exchange was profitable prior to the meltdown. 

“People only wanted to trade on FTX because you could trade against Alameda,” he explains. According to Spencer, FTX users were able to trade “shitcoin perps they launched and then subsequently destroyed. They were the initial liquidity providers for that.”

Spencer describes initial exchange offerings that caused major losses for the company. “They bought all of those tokens and then proceeded to seed the perp and trade against people — and that was why you traded there.”

“You could trade against Alameda,” he continues, “and Alameda was so bad at trading that they had to steal customer deposits to backfill the shortages.”

“Like, ipso facto, this was not a profitable business. It was just margin that was being internalized and then lost by Alameda.”

“I think, you know, he’s just frankly gotten this one completely wrong,” Spencer says.

“He may understand how to sell books,” Anderson says, “but I don’t think he understands the culture around the things that he’s writing about.”

What struck Ippolito about the book’s inaccuracies is not that the writer “got it a little bit wrong,” he says, but that “he got it a hundred percent, 180 degrees wrong.”

Ippolito explains that the book describes FTX as a sort of “profitable casino” that ultimately failed because of Alameda’s shortcomings. FTX “was never real,” Ippolito says, “but Alameda was the vehicle that he was using to siphon all of the wealth out of FTX.”

Read more: Co-founder Wang says FTX code allowed Alameda’s ‘unlimited withdrawals’

“It’s just so incorrect,” he says. “It’s almost too perfectly incorrect, if that makes sense.”

Spencer wonders, “who knows what Michael Lewis was fed, where his primary sources of information were, how much SBF was just bullshitting and making up as he went along?”

“I don’t know. I just think it’s so sad.”


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

  • Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
  • Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
  • Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
  • 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
  • Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
  • The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
  • Supply Shock: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.
Tags

Upcoming Events

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates.jpg

Research

Bluefin possibly stands at an inflection point. The token is near an all-time low yet the protocol’s spot volume market share and derivatives exchange usage have been increasing month over month since its November launch. Given its current market position and the upcoming upgrades (for both Bluefin and SUI), there may be upside potential before the increased supply growth in December. However, strong opposition from existing competitors (like Cetus and Suilend), as well as new entrants (like Aftermath), pose key challenges to Bluefin’s medium-term success.

article-image

Top Committee Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren in her opening statement accused Atkins of “helping billionaire CEOs like Sam Bankman-Fried”

article-image

Introducing garbled circuits for enhanced privacy and regulatory compliance

article-image

Ross Ulbricht was a freedom maximalist building freedom tech, powered by Bitcoin

article-image

Solana validators can reap benefits including payments, votes and community clout

article-image

Sponsored

WalletConnect is cementing itself as the essential connectivity layer, ensuring wallets remain the entry point for billions of users

article-image

According to a legal filing, Galaxy Digital helped boost the price of LUNA while quietly selling its tokens