Everything about these events is designed to funnel these 19-year-olds into FTX. It’s this paradox where crypto is supposed to be about decentralization, yet you have these very centralized actors who, when they attract new audiences, basically work to push them into their own products.

It's a sleight of hand, where he's promoting these very utopian promises about creating a new, beautiful financial system — unshackling people from their past economic and financial problems — but in reality, he's getting them into a system that's just as problematic as the previous one.

Your book highlights the story of Nigerian artist Owo Anietie and the AfroDroids NFT project. In your experience, what lessons can future NFT artists take away from this story, especially in light of the renewed interest in NFTs?

Chow: There's always been a strained relationship between art and money, and the reasons people with money fund art or culture...  No artists are exempt from thinking about this, but I think crypto and NFT artists probably have the most direct interaction with this moneyed class that sometimes holds their fate in their hands. Often, they say they care about the art – and some collectors do –  but most are just trying to flip it.

Your book mentioned that half of Africa's NFT community exited following the FTX collapse. What would you say is going to be the long-term significance of that? Do you think that community is going to grow again? 

Chow: When I talk to African entrepreneurs and founders, a lot of them mention the idea of Africa being able to skip a generation of tech — bypassing desktops and going straight to phones. The idea that crypto could serve a similar role by leapfrogging some of the banking infrastructure and going straight to crypto is compelling, but I think we've seen that it can be a tough proposition to build trust.

FTX did a lot of damage to the trust in crypto for everyday people. Now, there are still a lot of people who remain committed, and VC money continues to flow into crypto projects in Africa.. It just depends on whether you think skepticism around crypto is good or bad.

You also write about the influence of high-profile individuals like Elon Musk on crypto markets. How do you think Dogecoin will shift with Musk co-leading the Department of Government Efficiency?"

Chow: I think volatility will continue to be central to what Dogecoin and other meme coins are. In fact, that's why people like Dogecoin... The whole point is if you time the market right, you can make a lot of money in a short amount of time.

Meme coins are, by nature, a zero-sum game.. They're a pure form of gambling, where if you feel like you can get in at the right time, based on the information you have, you can make a quick buck. By design, the more people come into it, the more stable it becomes. But I think it will still be a very risky endeavor — fun for some people, horrifying for others.

It reflects, perhaps, a kind of nihilism about financial markets, or this idea that many people treat traditional finance as if there's a hollowness in the middle of it — assets we've long perceived as having inherent worth are actually just propped up by institutions on Wall Street that are trying to exploit us. So, why not have fun with it? It’s a gesture toward populism, but again, there's this irony – it’s being propped up by one of the wealthiest men in the world, so it’s still very centralized.

More broadly, in terms of the Trump administration, everything is set up for crypto to have a really good few months. If you look at macroeconomic forces – inflation coming down, the Fed cutting rates, the people in Trump's administration and how they're thinking about crypto, [and] Gensler going away... I don't know if crypto, in the short-term, could have asked for a better six-month climate than it has right now. The crypto industry has long talked about how they just need to be unshackled, and then they're going to bring all this innovation and industry back to the U.S. without causing contagion or any sort of ripple effects. So, this is their time to shine and to see if they can uphold their end of the bargain.

We've seen how narrative is really important in crypto. Crypto is always searching for a new narrative to bring the next wave of people in.. For the past two years, so much of crypto sentiment has been driven by external forces and not, "Oh, here's an amazing new product that that we made."

As far as I can tell, the underlying blockchain technology has seen many improvements, but in terms of how this tech is impacting the everyday user or investor, it hasn't changed all that much since I started writing my book. So much of the [story] has more to do with the political or economic climate. For anybody who's hoping for a sustained run of glory, I think crypto has proven that that's just not how it works.

The crypto industry is also celebrating the light-touch regulation that Trump is promising. But what do you think will be the long-term impact of this type of  regulation?

Chow: We're going to see increasing entanglements between crypto and the traditional financial markets. We already saw that with the ETFs [exchange-traded funds], and now, obviously we're going to see many more ETFs come into the market by way of Ethereum. Solana, you name it. These are, by nature, riskier types of assets than bitcoin, because they're just way less proven. We're going to see what kind of effects that has, bringing these riskier assets packing, putting a bow on them and putting them into the TradFi system. We're also going to see what happens with crypto and 401ks, as more 401ks allow you to put crypto into portfolios.

What do you think regulators under Trump need to remember about crypto?

Chow: I think they need to remember why [SEC chair Gary] Gensler was so gung-ho about regulating this industry in the first place. Talking to so many crypto folks who, justifiably or not, treat Gensler as the devil and public enemy number one.. They point out specific companies that were playing by the book, but I think miss the context of the previous two years: So many of the major crypto success stories went up in smoke.

The whole point of the SEC is to defend customers – that is their mandate. And it's really not good for the crypto industry to just let any kind of project rise to the top. What put an end to the last bull cycle? It's very clear that it was Terra-Luna, Do Kwon, Three Arrows Capital, and Sam Bankman-Fried. Behind the scenes, all these hyper-consolidated, hyper-concentrated money managers playing these insane, Jenga-tower games that then all collapse. You can't blame that on Gary Gensler.

I would say it's bad for business when you just let mad men run wild with whatever they want to do, and it has brought crypto to its knees before.

How do you think the political leverage of the crypto industry has changed since the collapse of FTX?

Chow: The crypto industry is claiming an enormous victory after this election. I think there are definitely some seeds of truth to it... They can really come out of this election and say our tactics worked.. The rhetoric seems to be working, because it seems like even the staunchest Democrats have much bigger fish to fry... They're not going to make being anti-crypto one of their their tentpole pieces of policy right now, when there's so many other things for the Elizabeth Warrens of the world to fight.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.