Aug 21, 2025
| Updated Aug 21, 2025
KEY TAKEAWAYS:— Books remain a vital resource for deep learning about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, from Bitcoin’s technical foundations to decentralized governance models.
— Key titles like “The Network State” and “The Sovereign Individual” explore how blockchain and digital technologies can reshape society.
— Books such as “The Bitcoin Standard” and “Mastering Bitcoin” provide valuable insights into Bitcoin’s role as a sound money alternative and its technical architecture.
For the past 1,600 years, books have been our primary means of learning about the world, and for several millennia before that, scrolls did the same job. Now we live in a digital age in which the majority of the information we absorb is served up online. But despite this transformation, the humble book isn’t dead. In fact, predictions of its demise at the dawn of the internet have proven to be greatly exaggerated.
While websites, apps, and videos now form our go-to educational resources, when it comes to deep learning – or deep relaxation – the book is still king. There’s something about the ability to kick back in a comfy chair, with no screen glare or battery life to contend with, that makes the paper-bound volume supreme. It’s thus no coincidence that several of the best resources for learning about Bitcoin and crypto come in printed form.
Blockchain may be digital, but if you want to become an expert on it, you should be equally comfortable with going analog by picking up a good book on the topic. Here are six of the best.
Best Crypto Books in 2025
Crypto’s come a long way over the last 15 years, and so has its library. Early crypto books were dedicated to topics such as understanding Bitcoin from a technological and cultural perspective, but as the blockchain ecosystem has expanded, so has the remit of the books tasked with keeping pace with it.
From the emergence of smart contract networks to the arrival of institutional players, bringing with them ETFs and RWAs, there’s now an array of financial and technological concepts for learners to get to grips with. While no book can provide mastery of all these blockchain-adjacent disciplines, there are guides that address all of these verticals respectively, while others explore everything from decentralized finance to designing tokenomic models that can align incentives between web3 users.
Whether you’re just getting started in crypto or have been in the game for years, the following books are highly recommended reading, if not essential. They’ll give you a grounding in core blockchain concepts and reinforce your understanding and appreciation of why we do crypto. And they’re not overly dense either – for the most part, these are genuine page-turners that will keep you rapt from start to finish.
The Network State
Author: Balaji S. Srinivasan
Date of publication: 2022
Audience type: Intermediate
Type of subject: Explores the concept of creating new societies using technology through decentralized communities that evolve into sovereign entities.
Bitcoin is much more than a currency and blockchain is much more than a ledger. In his seminal book “The Network State,” well-known industry thinker and investor Balaji Srinivasan lays out his vision on how digital tools, including blockchain and cryptocurrencies, can enable the creation of “network states”: online communities that crowdfund physical territories, use smart contracts for governance, and eventually seek diplomatic recognition as sovereign entities.
The book explores the creation of decentralized economies within these network states and proposes a new model of governance. It challenges traditional nation-states by advocating for voluntary, opt-in communities built around shared values or “moral innovations” rather than geographic boundaries.
Srinivasan emphasizes the role of historical understanding and moral critique in forming these societies, arguing that network states could offer an alternative to failures of existing nation-states. It’s big picture stuff, but The Network State is beautifully painted and will open your eyes about what decentralized technology could and should achieve.
The Sovereign Individual
Author: William Rees-Mogg and James Dale Davidson
Date of publication: 1997
Audience type: Advanced
Type of subject: Predicts how the rise of digital technology and the information revolution will transform society, empowering individuals and weakening traditional nation-states.
Its publication might predate Bitcoin, but “The Sovereign Individual” is a book that was ahead of its time and remains relevant to this day. It predicts the internet, cryptocurrencies, smartphones, and electronic warfare as drivers of an Information Revolution akin to the Industrial Revolution, which will decentralize power and enable a “cybereconomy.” The authors foresaw digital currencies, smart contracts, and online bots, all of which have materialized.
While it would be stretching credulity to call The Sovereign Individual casual reading, it is essential reading for anyone with an interest in futurology and the convergence of humans and machines, which we are now witnessing in the AI-blockchain era.
The book makes the compelling argument that information technology will erode governments’ ability to tax and regulate as individuals and businesses move to low-tax jurisdictions or operate in cyberspace. It envisions sovereign individuals who earn income globally, free from state control, and predicts the rise of a gig economy and income inequality. If you think this sounds like the prequel to Srinivasan’s “The Network State,” you’re dead right. These two titles reveal all you need to know about where the world could be headed – and why decentralized technologies and self-sovereignty will be linchpins of this shift.
Best Bitcoin Books in 2025
The Bitcoin Standard
Author: Saifedean Ammous
Date of publication: 2018
Audience type: Intermediate to Advanced
Type of subject: Explores Bitcoin as a decentralized monetary system and critiques central banking, advocating for a return to sound money principles.
For all its gravitas, The Bitcoin Standard is a fascinating read that will expand your understanding of everything from Austrian economics to fiat inflation. You might not finish The Bitcoin Standard in one sitting, but it’s the sort of book you can dip into time and time again.
Saifedean argues that as a decentralized, fixed-supply currency, Bitcoin embodies the principles of sound money, offering a hedge against inflation caused by fiat currencies and central banking. He also doesn’t hold back on critiquing government-controlled money for enabling excessive spending and economic instability. The book has become a foundational text for Bitcoin enthusiasts – not to mention anyone who is skeptical about central banking.
Mastering Bitcoin
Author: Andreas M. Antonopoulos
Date of publication: 2014
Audience type: Advanced
Type of subject: A comprehensive guide to understanding Bitcoin’s technical foundations, aimed at developers and technically inclined readers seeking to build or interact with Bitcoin-based systems.
While it’s not always easy reading, “Mastering Bitcoin” is the unofficial Bitcoin bible.Persevere, and you’ll be rewarded with a deep understanding of how Bitcoin functions and a newfound appreciation for the genius of the pioneering cryptocurrency’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Antonopoulos’ legendary book provides a detailed explanation of Bitcoin’s architecture, including its consensus mechanism and transaction processing. It delves into how Bitcoin operates as a decentralized system and how nodes maintain the network, with Andreas taking time to explain core cryptographic principles underpinning Bitcoin, such as public-private key pairs and digital signatures. If you only read one big-brain Bitcoin book, it has to be “Mastering Bitcoin”.
The Internet of Money
Author: Andreas M. Antonopoulos
Date of publication: 2016
Audience type: Intermediate
Type of subject: A collection of talks by Andreas that explain Bitcoin’s societal and economic in non-technical terms.
While less famous than Mastering Bitcoin, “The Internet of Money” is every bit as powerful – and much more relatable. Even if the finer points of blockchain technology go over your head, the key takeaways from The Internet of Money won’t.
Antonopoulos explains concepts like digital currencies, smart contracts, and blockchain’s role as a public ledger in simple terms. The book then explores Bitcoin’s potential to reshape financial systems by enabling peer-to-peer transactions and reducing reliance on banks, emphasizing Bitcoin as a deflationary asset and its implications for monetary policy and global trade.
While the underlying technology is still addressed, in “The Internet of Money” Andreas is much more interested in Bitcoin’s societal impact, such as empowering citizens living under authoritarian regimes. Compiled from Antonopoulos’s public talks, the book serves as an inspiring primer on why Bitcoin and blockchain are much more than an inert technology.
Bitcoin Billionaires
Author: Ben Mezrich
Date of publication: 2019
Audience type: Beginner
Type of subject: An enthralling biopic of the Winklevoss twins and their rise from Facebook founders to become crypto billionaires and Gemini founders
If you like your reading to be more bubblegum than baffling, “Bitcoin Billionaires” is a fast-paced tale that moves like a movie – only every word of it is real. Crafted by acclaimed non-fiction writer and author of “The Accidental Billionaires”, Ben Mezrich, the book chronicles the journey of Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss as they invest in Bitcoin after their legal battle with Mark Zuckerberg over Facebook’s origins.
The gripping story follows the Winklevoss twins’ redemption arc after their $65 million settlement with Zuckerberg. Unable to invest in Silicon Valley due to their tarnished reputation, they encounter cryptocurrency in Ibiza and dive into its “obscure and sometimes sinister” world, meeting figures like Charlie Shrem and Roger Ver. Their $11 million investment grows to over $1 billion by 2017 as Bitcoin moves from the shadows to the center stage of a new financial system.
Best Web3 Books in 2025
If the six books profiled here haven’t sated your appetite for crypto content, there are plenty more titles capable of teaching you new things about web3 while keeping you captivated. If you’re an aspiring developer interested in smart contracts and the ability to create programmable money, “Mastering Ethereum” by Andreas M. Antonopoulos & Gavin Wood is the obvious place to start.
For readers who would rather be entertained first and foremost, “Out of the Ether” by Matthew Leising provides a fascinating insight into the early days of Ethereum and the DAO hack that almost ended it before the network had even had a chance to get started. Finally, for another pre-crypto book that uncannily predicts the future, “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson will astonish you. Despite being published in 1992, it foresaw the metaverse and has deservedly become a cyberpunk classic.
From the fundamentals of blockchain construction to the adrenaline-fueling antics of hackers and shadowy coders, the story of web3 is being written even as we’re living through it. So far, it’s been a blast as faithfully captured by the best Bitcoin and blockchain books.