Andrew's substack era

This is Cryptomania, the newsletter, week zero

Hey! I’m Andrew. I write about culture and tech for TIME Magazine. Welcome to week zero of my newsletter, which will feature exclusive excerpts and reporting from my first book, Cryptomania. The book will arrive in August, and traces the stunning rise and fall of crypto over the pandemic. 

Why a newsletter?

I’ve been told by multiple people I trust that Substack is great for “growing my audience” and by extension, drumming up pre-orders. Early pre-orders are crucial for how much marketing muscle my publisher puts behind the book when it comes out, as well as getting the attention of other publications. So I’m going to dance a bit for the crowd, and hopefully create something enjoyable.

Plug: You can pre-order Cryptomania here. If you order via Bookshop, use the code CRYPTOMANIA to get 15% off. 

What is the book about?

Over 20 short months between March 2021 and November 2022, crypto crashed the mainstream, spurred some great art, catalyzed some mind-bending sociopolitical experiments, became a trillion-dollar industry—and then suffered a brutal collapse thanks to greed, opportunism and the machinations of Sam Bankman-Fried. 

Cryptomania draws on my reporting over that 20-month time period, featuring insider sources at FTX and perspectives from across an extensive crypto network.

What is the newsletter about?

As a sort of preview to the book—which arrives in 21 weeks—I’m writing a weekly newsletter on Substack. Each of the 20 months in my book’s narrative will receive its own weekly installment, in which I cover that month’s craziest headlines, strangest NFT projects and meme coins, and whatever Sam Bankman-Fried was up to at the time. I’ll feature unique insight from other great crypto writers as we chart how a bull run that started with so much promise collapsed so soon. 

This is a project about the near past, but also the present. Crypto is back, and bigger than ever. Hopefully we can learn some stuff from the events that unfolded a mere three years ago. Please subscribe!

The junk drawer section

I wrote this week about why bitcoin hit its all time high. Bitcoin skeptics and enthusiasts have two totally different opinions about why this bull run is happening—you gotta love economic analysis. 

I found this ambient-ish jazz album the same way that any good music listener finds music these days: via an Instagram repost of a TikTok. Whatever. It’s great. 

Have you guys been playing Cinematrix, too? I’m on multiple group chats about it, and it’s activating all the super-competitive, pop-culture-nerd synapses in my brain. I’ve spent most of today stewing about not realizing that “Kill Bill: Volume 1” is four words.

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