Number Go Up
Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall is a 2023 nonfiction book by Zeke Faux, an investigative reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek, that examines the cryptocurrency sector's speculative frenzy from 2021 to 2022, emphasizing fraudulent schemes, celebrity endorsements, and the collapse of major exchanges like FTX.[1][2] The book traces the origins of crypto hype through personal investigations, including encounters with promoters in Puerto Rico, poker games involving early adopters, and the Bahamas-based operations of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, whom Faux portrays as emblematic of the industry's blend of altruism rhetoric and financial misconduct.[1][3] Faux details how retail investors chased rapid price appreciation—captured in the meme-like mantra "number go up"—only to face trillions in losses amid revelations of Ponzi-like structures and unsecured customer funds.[4][3] Published by Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House, on September 12, 2023, the work draws on Faux's on-the-ground reporting to critique the sector's lack of intrinsic value backing and regulatory oversight, while acknowledging isolated technological innovations amid widespread delusion.[1][5] It has been lauded for its vivid storytelling and empirical focus on verifiable scams, though proponents of blockchain utility have dismissed it as overlooking long-term potential in decentralized finance.[3][6]Phrase in Cryptocurrency Culture
Origins and Early Adoption
The phrase "number go up" emerged in online cryptocurrency discussions as a satirical shorthand critiquing the singular focus on asset price appreciation among Bitcoin enthusiasts, often disregarding underlying technology or fundamentals. Its earliest documented use appears in the r/Buttcoin subreddit, an anti-Bitcoin forum founded in 2013, where a user on September 28, 2013, mockingly referred to a hypothetical "NumberGoUpCoin" whose value was justified solely by its price increasing, stating, "I don't know much about the technology involved (I'm an ideas man), but I can see the NumberGoUpCoin number go up and that's all the TA I need."[7] This usage highlighted perceived superficiality in early Bitcoin advocacy, where proponents emphasized monetary scarcity and halving events as mechanisms to drive perpetual price gains, encapsulated later as "NGU technology."[8] By 2017, the phrase migrated to Twitter amid the initial coin offering (ICO) boom, with the first notable crypto-related tweet lacking an article ("the") attributed to @VexingCrypto on November 15, 2017, promoting WaltonCoins (WTC) by boasting of its price surge: "WaltonCoins number go up."[7] This period coincided with Bitcoin's price rally from under $1,000 to nearly $20,000 by December 2017, fueling speculative fervor and broader adoption of meme-like expressions in crypto culture.[9] Early adopters in Bitcoin maximalist circles repurposed the term ironically or affirmatively, framing it as a virtue of Bitcoin's fixed supply of 21 million coins, which theoretically enforces deflationary pressure and long-term appreciation.[10] The phrase gained traction in pro-crypto communities around 2018–2019, evolving from mockery to a self-aware mantra during market recoveries, such as Bitcoin's rebound from $3,200 in December 2018.[11] Forums like BitcoinTalk and Reddit's r/Bitcoin amplified it, with users citing historical price charts showing compound annual growth exceeding 200% since 2010 as empirical validation for the "number go up" expectation.[12] However, its dual origins—satirical in skeptic circles and aspirational in enthusiast ones—underscore a cultural divide, where critics viewed it as emblematic of gambling-like speculation, while proponents saw it as pragmatic acknowledgment of market dynamics driven by adoption and scarcity.[7]Meaning and Philosophical Underpinnings
In cryptocurrency culture, the phrase "number go up"—often rendered ungrammatically without articles for meme-like emphasis—denotes the primary objective of achieving rising prices for digital assets, serving as a shorthand for the speculative pursuit of capital appreciation. Participants invoke it to express optimism about market surges, where success is gauged by numerical increases in token values rather than technological utility, real-world adoption, or revenue generation from underlying protocols. This mindset gained prominence during bull markets, such as Bitcoin's ascent to approximately $19,000 in December 2017 and $69,000 in November 2021, framing price escalation as an inherent feature of decentralized finance rather than an anomaly.[9][7] Philosophically, the "number go up" ethos rests on convictions about scarcity-driven value accrual and network dynamics, positing that assets like Bitcoin, capped at 21 million coins, exhibit deflationary properties that reward early holders and incentivize holding amid growing demand. Advocates draw from concepts akin to Metcalfe's law, asserting that a cryptocurrency's worth scales quadratically with its user base, thereby justifying expectations of perpetual upward trajectories as adoption expands globally. This perspective aligns with a techno-libertarian optimism, viewing market prices as emergent signals of superior monetary evolution over fiat systems prone to inflation, with historical price recoveries—such as Bitcoin's rebound from $3,200 in December 2018 to over $60,000 by 2024—cited as empirical vindication.[13] Critics, however, highlight causal mechanisms revealing the phrase's underpinnings as rooted in zero-sum speculation rather than productive innovation, where gains derive from recruiting successive waves of buyers in a manner resembling greater fool dynamics. Analyses of trading volumes and sentiment indices during peaks show correlations with retail investor influx and social media hype, not proportional advances in transaction throughput or enterprise integration; for instance, Ethereum's 2021 surge coincided with non-fungible token mania but preceded network congestion and a 75% price drop by mid-2022. Such patterns underscore a reductionist metric where price supplants substantive evaluation, potentially amplifying systemic risks like those exposed in the 2022 collapses of platforms such as FTX, which relied on illusory liquidity to sustain "up" narratives.[13][14]Evolution and Community Impact
The phrase "number go up," often abbreviated as NGU, emerged in cryptocurrency discourse around October 2017 during the initial Bitcoin price surge, initially appearing in online forums like SomethingAwful as a self-deprecating or ironic acknowledgment of investors' primary focus on asset appreciation rather than technological utility.[7] By late 2017, it proliferated on Twitter and Bitcoin-related communities, evolving from a niche meme critiquing speculative fervor—such as in posts by accounts like @ButtCoin—to a semi-ironic mantra among holders who viewed Bitcoin's fixed supply of 21 million coins and halving events as mechanisms ensuring long-term price increases through scarcity and adoption.[7] This shift reflected Bitcoin's empirical performance, with its price rising from approximately $1,000 in early 2017 to nearly $20,000 by December, reinforcing the phrase's appeal as a simplistic encapsulation of monetary incentives over complex narratives like decentralization.[9] Over subsequent years, NGU adapted to the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem beyond Bitcoin, particularly during the 2020-2021 bull market when total crypto market capitalization exceeded $2 trillion in November 2021, incorporating altcoins, NFTs, and memecoins where price pumps became cultural events driven by social media hype.[10] In memecoin communities, such as those around Dogecoin or newer tokens, NGU morphed into an optimistic rallying cry for rapid gains, often detached from fundamentals, as seen in 2024-2025 surges where tokens like those promoted on platforms like Solana achieved multibillion-dollar valuations in days amid viral marketing.[15] However, post-2022 market crashes—following events like the Terra-Luna collapse in May 2022, which wiped out $40 billion—prompted some maturation, with discussions shifting toward "tokenomics" and sustainable models, though NGU persisted as a shorthand for enduring faith in appreciation technologies like Bitcoin's halvings, the most recent occurring in April 2024.[16] Critics, often from skeptical outlets, argue this evolution perpetuated a gambler's fallacy, but proponents counter that it aligns with causal drivers like network effects and institutional inflows, evidenced by Bitcoin ETFs approved by the U.S. SEC in January 2024 attracting over $15 billion in assets within months.[11] Within the cryptocurrency community, NGU has profoundly influenced behavior, promoting a "HODL" (hold on for dear life) ethos that sustained participation through volatility, as Bitcoin's price recovered from $16,000 in late 2022 to over $60,000 by mid-2024 despite intermediate drawdowns.[10] This focus fostered resilience and capital inflows, with surveys indicating over 40% of crypto holders citing price potential as their entry motive in 2023 polls, but it also amplified risks, contributing to phenomena like pump-and-dump schemes and the 2022 FTX collapse, where speculative leverage led to $8 billion in customer losses.[9] Community fragmentation emerged, as voiced by Bitcoin advocate Jeremy Kauffman in 2022, who lambasted NGU culture for sidelining ideological goals like financial sovereignty in favor of pure speculation, eroding early cypherpunk principles.[17] Empirically, however, NGU's emphasis on price discovery has driven adoption metrics, such as Bitcoin's active addresses peaking at over 1 million daily in 2021 and stabilizing around 800,000 in 2024, underscoring its role in incentivizing network security via mining incentives tied to value accrual.[11] While mainstream critiques from sources like Bloomberg often highlight downsides amid bias toward regulatory skepticism, the phrase's endurance reflects a pragmatic realism: in a sector where utility lags monetization, price escalation remains the verifiable signal of success.[9]Book by Zeke Faux
Author Background and Publication Details
Zeke Faux is an American investigative journalist specializing in financial markets and fraud. He has worked as a reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg News for over a decade, focusing on exposing hustles and scams in various sectors.[18] Prior to this emphasis, Faux served as a National Fellow at New America, a think tank advocating for policy innovations.[2] His reporting has earned him the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award for media addressing legal and justice issues, and a finalist nomination for the National Magazine Award.[2] Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall marks Faux's first book, drawing on his on-the-ground investigations into the cryptocurrency industry's 2021 boom and subsequent collapse. The work chronicles events involving figures like Sam Bankman-Fried and explores global crypto ventures in locations such as the Bahamas, El Salvador, the Philippines, and Cambodia.[2] The book was initially published in hardcover on September 12, 2023, by Crown Currency, an imprint of Crown Publishing Group under Penguin Random House.[1] It features ISBN 978-0-593-44381-1 and comprises 256 pages. A paperback edition followed on October 1, 2024, expanding to 320 pages.[4]