Nathaniel Popper

Before joining The New York Times, Popper worked for the Los Angeles Times in New York City and for the Forward. He covered Wall Street and Silicon Valley for The New York Times for more than a decade and later became an editor at Bloomberg News.⁠[1]

In 2015 HarperCollins published Popper’s book Digital Gold: BitcoinBitcoinBitcoin (common symbol BTC) is an open peer-to-peer electronic cash protocol, network, and native digital asset. Full nodes independently verify transactions and blocks according to the consensus rules; transactions are recorded as UTXOs, and blocks are organized into a public ledger through proof of work. Bitcoin is not issued or managed by any single institution, but using, holding in custody, and trading it still involve key, privacy, market, and legal risks.Open the full entry and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Reinventing Money, which was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and an Amazon Editors’ Pick.⁠[1]

The six-title shortlist for the 2015 Financial TimesFinancial TimesThe Financial Times (FT) is a London-based English-language business and financial news organization, known for its salmon-pink newspaper and its motto “Without Fear and Without Favour.” It was owned successively by the British Pearson group and Japan’s Nikkei Inc., and today digital subscriptions are its main source of revenue.Open the full entry and McKinseyMcKinsey & CompanyMcKinsey & Company is a management consulting firm headquartered in New York, United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey and, after Marvin Bower established its “professional service” principles, grew into one of the largest pure consulting firms in the world; as of October 2026 it has more than 100 offices in over 50 countries and about 40,000 employees. It has also repeatedly faced regulatory investigations and public criticism over episodes such as its work with Enron, a former leader’s insider trading case, and its consulting for opioid manufacturers.Open the full entry Business Book of the Year Award, announced on September 22, 2015, included Digital Gold: The Untold Story of Bitcoin by Popper, then a business reporter for The New York Times.⁠[2]

On May 19, 2015, Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry released the a16z Podcast episode “a16z Podcast: Which Bitcoin Players Matter?,” featuring Popper as a New York Times journalist and author of Digital Gold. The episode examined the “workaday utility” of bitcoin in Argentina, the conditions behind that adoption, whether other countries might follow and whether Argentina was an isolated case or a temporary stopgap.⁠[3]

Popper also argued that the people behind bitcoin matter, especially because bitcoin is a “blank slate” on which others can build. The episode was uploaded to the a16z YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel on January 1, 2019, as “a16z Podcast | Which Bitcoin Players Matter?”⁠[3][4]

On November 9, 2017, Popper appeared on Terry Gross’s Fresh Air as the author of Digital Gold in a 43-minute episode titled “Once An Underground Currency, Bitcoin Emerges As 'A New Way To Track Information',” which discussed Bitcoin and digital currency, its growth in value and major banks’ interest in its decentralized network.⁠[5]

In June 2024 Dey Street Books published Popper’s book The Trolls of Wall Street: How the Outcasts and Insurgents Are Hacking the Markets.⁠[1]

Popper is a featured character and consulting producer on the Netflix documentary Bitconned, and has also appeared in documentaries including Banking on Bitcoin, This Is Not Financial Advice and The Teenager Who Hacked Twitter.⁠[1]

Personal website: https://www.nathanielpopper.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]

X: Public account: https://x.com/nathanielpopper (opens in a new window).⁠[1]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathaniel-popper-36529a5/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]