Jacob Silverman

Jacob Silverman is an American journalist and author. He writes on technology, finance and political corruption. He is best known for Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud (2023), a New York Times bestseller co-written with Ben McKenzie, and for Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley (2025), published by Bloomsbury.

Silverman is a contributing editor at The New Republic and The Baffler. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Vanity Fair, among other publications.

His first book, Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection (2015), examined how social media platforms extract value from users. Easy Money (2023), co-authored with journalist Ben McKenzie, traced the rise and collapse of the cryptocurrency industry. It became a New York Times bestseller.

Gilded Rage (2025) investigates how Silicon Valley billionaires shifted from moderate liberalism to hard-right politics in the years leading up to Donald Trump's re-election. The book argues that this shift is rooted in money and libertarian ideology rather than online radicalisation.

Bloomberg noted that Silverman grounds his argument in finance rather than social media provocation, offering a credible account of why figures such as Elon Musk and Marc Andreessen became Trump's most powerful allies in tech. Publishers Weekly described the book as an essential account of growing extremism among America's wealthy elite.

Kirkus Reviews called it a book that should trouble your dreams. The Financial Times praised it as lively and provocative, and The American Prospect named it one of the most important books of the year.

Jacob Silverman is based in New York.

Photo credit: Bluesky @jacobsilverman