After more than a decade of breathless hype, how did Bitcoin—supposedly the clean, liberating future of money—turn into a global engine of scams, cybercrime, and cold-blooded chaos? To answer that, we have to go where the story truly detonated: Japan. In The Devil Takes Bitcoin: Cryptocurrency Crimes and the Japanese Connection, investigative journalist Jake Adelstein traces cryptocurrency’s rise from a nerdy experiment to a real-world criminal ecosystem, and follows the money into the shadows. Tokyo became ground zero when Mt. Gox, once the world’s largest bitcoin exchange, collapsed with nearly half a billion dollars’ worth of bitcoin missing—possibly the greatest heist in history, if it was a heist.
Adelstein takes readers inside an underworld of absent-minded CEOs, hackers, hucksters, cybercrooks, drug dealers, corrupt federal agents, evangelical libertarians, and tech true-believers who never saw the trapdoor beneath their feet. Along the way, the book reveals Bitcoin’s connection to Silk Road, the high cost of betting with the Devil’s dollars, and why “even in hell, Bitcoin talks”—a modern twist on an old Japanese saying that feels more like prophecy than metaphor.
Jake Adelstein is an investigative journalist and author known for his reporting on organized crime, corruption, and the hidden machinery of modern Japan. The podcast he co-created, “The Evaporated: Gone With The Gods” was awarded best podcast in Asia and the follow-up, “Night Shift,” about a serial killer in his hometown of Columbia, Missouri won the Signal Award for True Crime last year. His work blends deep sourcing with narrative drive, bringing readers face-to-face with the people who profit when systems fail—and the ones who pay the price. The Devil Takes Bitcoin is the wild, true story of cyber-era commerce and one of the most consequential financial mysteries of our time—told with the urgency of a thriller and the receipts of a reporter.
Doors open at 5:45 pm with a casual “meet the author/cocktail time” from 6:00 pm. Dinner will be served from 6:30 pm and the talk begins at 7:15 pm.
The menu is Tuna and Potato Salad, Grilled Pork with Demi-mustard Sauce, Bread, Today’s Dessert, Coffee or Tea, and One beverage of choice (orange juice, oolong tea, red or white wine, beer). A vegetarian option is available. Please inform the club of food restrictions when reserving (front@fccj.or.jp). Price: 3,000 yen for members; 4,000 yen for non-members.
Online attendance (Zoom) is available by reservation at 550 yen per person (Participation in the Q&A session via Zoom will not be available for this event.)
The member reservation deadline is 2 pm March 3.
Non-members must reserve and pay by Thursday, February 26.
No cancellations after Saturday, February 28.
(The talk will be in English)
Library, Archives & Workroom Committee