Kings of Crypto: One Startup’s Quest to Take Cryptocurrency out of Silicon Valley and Onto Wall Street, reviewed

Review of Kings of Crypto: One Startup’s Quest to Take Cryptocurrency out of Silicon Valley and Onto Wall Street, available from Harvard Business Review Press here.

Brian Armstrong stepped onto the stage with quiet confidence. He turned to the audience and shared his idea with the simple slogan: “Coinbase, the easiest way to get started with bitcoin.” For a moment late in 2018, one bitcoin, which physically amounts to a few electrons blipping on a tiny bit of silicon, was worth $20,000–the same as a pound of gold. Libertarian technologists who believed bitcoin would be the foundation of a new world order saw the moment as an apotheosis.

Everyone else saw a bubble. Everyone else was right, and the bubble burst. But bitcoin survived, and the battle for its soul rages on. “Kings of Crypto” drops us into the unfolding drama, tracing the rise, fall, and rebirth of cryptocurrency through the experiences of major players across the globe. We follow Silicon Valley entrepreneur Brian Armstrong and the turbulent rocket ride of his startup, Coinbase, as he tries to take bitcoin mainstream while fighting off hackers, thieves, and zealots.

Author Jeff John Roberts keenly observes the world of virtual currencies and what happens when startups try to disrupt the world of high finance. Clear explanations of crypto technology are woven into an amazing landscape full of meme-fueled startup hijinks, hacking (so much hacking!), shady investors, government investigations, billionaire bros and their Lambos, and closed-door meetings with Jamie Dimon. This is the surprising story of the origins of cryptocurrency and how it is changing money forever.

Kings of Crypto: One Startup’s Quest to Take Cryptocurrency out of Silicon Valley and Onto Wall Street, reviewed

We liked a lot about this book apart from perhaps the title. Throughout the book, which is a captivating and entertaining read, the narrative does capture the missteps of Brian Armstrong, and how they have stumbled, battled, and fallen into the future. Yes, he, and his early partners and hires, have become fantastically wealthy, but, much like the price of bitcoin itself, it has not been a smooth ride.

Roberts captures the story well, with all of the main players accurately described,  in all of their idiosyncratic glories. This was a book that we found ourselves enjoying and wondering what would happen next, as this was no preordained road to glory. The rise of Binance and CZ very much exemplifying that this is a fast moving and dynamic space. Snooze, or in Coinbase’s case, stop to worry about how to spend the money you are making, and someone else will eat your dinner in front of you.

In a turbulent and fluid space, this book is a good addition to the literature of trying to capture just what on earth has happened over this last crazy roller-coaster decade of crypto. As Coinbase is mainly the subject of this book, the implication is that they were the Kings of Crypto, but as the book outlines they were hardly omnipresent. Asia is still the place to watch, and probably where the new kings of crypto will emerge from. A good Christmas book for the crypto holdler in your life.

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