American actor Ben McKenzie, known for the series The O.C. and Gotham, has released the documentary Everyone Is Lying To You For Money, in which he criticizes the cryptocurrency industry. The film is a continuation of a book about cryptocurrencies that he wrote with journalist Jacob Silverman, and tells the story of events in the crypto market in 2022 and the collapse of the FTX exchange.
As ABC News Australia reports, McKenzie has a degree in economics and became interested in cryptocurrencies during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to him, amid low interest rates and fears of currency depreciation, retail investors increasingly turned to bitcoin.
Criticism of cryptocurrencies
The actor said that he initially understood the appeal of cryptocurrencies for people skeptical of the significant influence of corporations on everyday life. At the same time, he concluded that deregulating currencies is not the answer to problems following the global financial crisis.
“Moving the trust on which money rests from the public sphere to the private sphere seems to me to be a very bad idea,” McKenzie said. In his view, the cryptocurrency industry is “the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.”
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In 2022, McKenzie opened a short position on cryptocurrencies — betting on a decline in their value. He said that the profit from this trade funded approximately half of the documentary.
Interview with Sam Bankman-Fried
In the film, McKenzie also speaks with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, whom the source describes as imprisoned for fraud. According to the actor, the interview was recorded five or six months before the exchange’s collapse. The documentary also includes accounts from FTX investors who lost money after mass withdrawals revealed an $11 billion shortfall in the exchange’s accounts.
McKenzie testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking and at Senate-related forums on cryptocurrency fraud. The film also shows his appearance before Congress during consideration of the circumstances of FTX’s collapse. The actor noted that he does not seek to persuade committed cryptocurrency supporters and made the film for those who are only beginning to take an interest in the field.
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