Author Talk: Jake Adelstein and The Devil Takes Bitcoin

In partnership with Scribe Publications

Japan Society is honored to welcome bestselling author Jake Adelstein for a special talk and signing in celebration of the release of his newest book, The Devil Takes Bitcoin: Cryptocurrency Crimes and the Japanese Connection.

About Jake Adelstein
Jake Adelstein has been an investigative journalist in Japan since 1993, reporting in both Japanese and English. From 2006 to 2007 he was the chief investigator for a U.S. State Department-sponsored study of human trafficking in Japan. He has been writing for The Daily Beast, The Japan Times and other publications since 2011, and was a special correspondent for The Los Angeles Times. Considered one of the foremost experts on organized crime in Japan, he works as a writer and consultant in Japan and the United States. He co-hosted and co-wrote the award-winning podcast about missing people in Japan, The Evaporated: Gone with the Gods in 2023. He is the author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan (Vintage), which is now a series on Max, and also The Last Yakuza: Life and Death in the Japanese Underworld (2023). He has appeared on CNN, NPR, the BBC, France 24 and other media outlets.

About The Devil Takes Bitcoin

From the author of Tokyo Vice comes the wild, true story of cyber-era commerce, crime, cold-hard cash, and one of the greatest heists in history.

Even in hell, Bitcoin talks. This modern take on an old Japanese saying still holds true. Cryptocurrency was supposed to do for money what the internet did for information, but it didn’t work out that way. Its virtual existence unleashed real-world chaos—especially in the homeland of its mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Tokyo was the center of the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, until that company collapsed with nearly half a billion dollars’ worth of Bitcoin gone missing. It might be the greatest heist in history. If it was a heist.

So what really happened? The Devil Takes Bitcoin tells the true story of the humble-to-hot commodity, from the former geek website that launched the boom to an inside world of absent-minded CEOs, hucksters, hackers, cybercrooks, drug dealers, corrupt federal agents, evangelical libertarians, and clueless techies. You’ll discover Bitcoin’s connection to the infamous Silk Road, learn why hell has nothing on Japan’s criminal justice system, and get the lowdown on the high cost of betting with the Devil’s dollars. All of this for less than the price of a single Bitcoin.

“The Devil Takes Bitcoin is a wild ride through the glitchy, glorious mess that is crypto history. Jake Adelstein connects the dots like a conspiracy theorist with actual receipts. Read it. Laugh. Cringe. Maybe even HODL (Hold on for dear life).”—Tigran Gambaryan, former IRS Special Agent also known as “The Crypto Wizard”

“It is, of course, brilliant. A twisting, complex, international true-crime thriller involving Bitcoin, The Silk Road, and the cutting edge of Cryptocurrency malfeasance.”—David Hayter, award-winning screenwriter

“The true story of cyber-era commerce, crime, cold-hard cash, and one of the greatest heists in history.”—ArtsHub

“A whirlwind account of crypto’s rise and rot.”—The Saturday Paper

Autographs and Book Sales

Attendees of Japan Society’s Jake Adelstein talk and signing will be able to purchase copies of The Devil Takes Bitcoin, Tokyo Vice, and Adelstein’s other books at the event or bring books from home for a signing session following the author’s talk.

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The NYC Japanese Literature Series is supported by a grant from the Toshiba International Foundation, and All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd., the official airline partner of the series.

Support for cultural programs is provided by Anime NYC; the Sandy Heck Lecture Fund; Faith L. Taylor; and Jean Fan Colson and Daniel Colson.

Japan Society programs are supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Japan Society’s 120th anniversary initiatives and related programs are generously supported by Champion Sponsor, MUFG Bank, Ltd.; Advocate Sponsor, Mizuho Americas; and Friend Sponsor, Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas).