Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency

From the award-winning author of Sandworm comes the propulsive story of a new breed of investigators who have cracked the Bitcoin blockchain, exposing once-anonymous realms of money, drugs, and violence. “I love the book… It reads like a thriller… These stories are amazing.” (Michael Lewis)

Over the last decade, a single innovation has massively fueled digital black markets: cryptocurrency. Crime lords inhabiting lawless corners of the internet have operated more freely—whether in drug dealing, money laundering, or human trafficking—than their analog counterparts could have ever dreamed of. By transacting not in dollars or pounds but in currencies with anonymous ledgers, overseen by no government, beholden to no bankers, these black marketeers have sought to rob law enforcement of their chief method of cracking down on illicit finance: following the money.

But what if the centerpiece of this dark economy held a secret, fatal flaw? What if their currency wasn’t so cryptic after all? An investigator using the right mixture of technical wizardry, financial forensics, and old-fashioned persistence could uncover an entire world of wrongdoing.

Tracers in the Dark is a story of crime and pursuit unlike any other. With unprecedented access to the major players in federal law enforcement and private industry, veteran cybersecurity reporter Andy Greenberg tells an astonishing saga of criminal empires built and destroyed. He introduces an IRS agent with a defiant streak, a Bitcoin-tracing Danish entrepreneur, and a colorful ensemble of hardboiled agents and prosecutors as they delve deep into the crypto-underworld. The result is a thrilling, globe-spanning story of dirty cops, drug bazaars, trafficking rings, and the biggest takedown of an online narcotics market in the history of the Internet.

Utterly of our time, Tracers in the Dark is a cat-and-mouse story and a tale of a technological one-upmanship. Filled with canny maneuvering and shocking twists, it answers a provocative question: How would some of the world’s most brazen criminals behave if they were sure they could never get caught?

Andy Greenberg is a senior writer for Wired magazine. He's written about hackers, cybersecurity, surveillance and privacy for more than 15 years, and is the author of three books: Tracers in the Dark, Sandworm, and This Machine Kills Secrets. Tracers in the Dark and Sandworm, along with excerpts of the books published in Wired, have won several honors including two Gerald Loeb awards for distinguished business and financial reporting. This Machine Kills Secrets was named by The Verge as one of the top ten greatest tech books of all time. Greenberg lives in Brooklyn with his wife, documentary filmmaker Malika Zouhali-Worrall.

ISBN: 9780385548090
Format: Hardback
Pages: 384
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: November 15, 2022

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE

“[Greenberg] deftly assembles a rogues’ gallery of characters… [An] absorbing narrative… Each key section of the book—the Silk Road story; the dismantling of its successor, AlphaBay; the massive theft of Bitcoin from the Mt. Gox exchange; and, finally, the bust of the Welcome to Video child porn emporium—unfolds like a compact mystery.”

—New York Times Book Review

“Immensely readable... Greenberg is known for his ability to explain complicated technology in a way anyone can understand, and he doesn’t disappoint when he tackles crypto…. The whole smoky world of crypto starts to open up... [He] takes readers on a romp through some of the most infamous dark web takedowns in recent memory.”

—Washington Post