Before You Invest in Crypto, Watch This Film |
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Not too sure what to make of cryptocurrency? Don’t really understand it but kind of think it’s a scam? That was Ben McKenzie’s attitude when an old buddy during the Covid pandemic suggested he invest in Bitcoin. His pal had given him a bum investment tip years earlier, so McKenzie was wary. But since he was shut in, with time on his hands, he decided to use that stretch to dig deep into crypto—real deep—and came to the realization: It’s a con. Thus, he was launched on a second career as a crypto critic.
McKenzie’s first career was a pretty good one. He’s a Hollywood star. He played Ryan Atwood, the bad boy with a good heart, on The O.C., the popular teen drama of the 2000s. He was also police detective Jim Gordon in Gotham, the dark and moody Batman prequel. But now he took on a much different role. Armed only with his undergraduate economics degree from University of Virginia and a sense of skepticism, he fired up his laptop and mounted a one-man investigation of crypto that resulted in the 2023 book (co-written with journalist Jacob Silverman), Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud. The title is a giveaway for where his inquiry landed.
McKenzie began his crypto journey with a simple principle: You should not invest in something you don’t understand.
Last month, the 47-year-old McKenzie released a documentary, Everyone Is Lying to You for Money, which, appropriately for a denizen of a superhero world, is an origin story. It chronicles how this former teen heartthrob became one of the leading antagonists of the crypto industry. It also serves up a 90-minute-long entertaining primer on crypto, explaining its rise, its scamminess, and the threat it poses to the financial sector—and you and me. It’s not quite the same as watching Margot Robbie in a bubble bath explain subprime loans, but McKenzie has deftly crafted an enjoyable but troubling ride through the murky world of digital currency.
McKenzie began his crypto journey with a simple principle: You should not invest in something you don’t understand. After the financial crash of 2007, people were right to be pissed off at Big Finance, a system rigged by Wall Street predators for the wealthy. The promise that cryptocurrency could decentralize and democratize finance was appealing. But the specific promise of Bitcoin sounded like a “free lunch” to him. Especially given how Matt Damon and other celebs, paid by the industry, were promoting crypto as an adventure for the bold and exploiting FOMO. “What does Matt Damon know about crypto?” McKenzie asks in the film. “Nothing.”
In London, McKenzie chatted with Dan Davies, an economist and author of Lying for Money, and asked him, “All of crypto can’t be a scam, right?” Davies replied, “I don’t like that word ‘can’t.’”
McKenzie trekked to crypto conventions and talked to crypto disciples (including one cryptocurrency founder who ended up in prison for fraud). He traveled to El Salvador, where the nation’s authoritarian leader embraced crypto and promised to build a “Bitcoin City” powered by geothermal energy from a volcano. (Spoiler alert: There’s no such city yet.) In July 2022, he interviewed Sam Bankman-Fried, who fast became a billionaire by creating the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, and who had a hard time explaining to McKenzie what crypto was good for besides speculation and criminal operations. “There needs to be more oversight,” SBF told him. (Four months later FTX would collapse and Bankman-Fried would be arrested for fraud and money-laundering.)
In London, McKenzie chatted with Dan Davies, an economist and author of Lying for Money, and asked him, “All of crypto can’t be a scam, right?” Davies replied, “I don’t like that word ‘can’t.’” McKenzie testified before Congress and called the crypto industry “the largest Ponzi scheme in history,” warning it could infect the entire financial system if not regulated properly. In perhaps the most disturbing scene, he talked to everyday folks who still believed in the power and dream of crypto—even after being fleeced in a crypto scheme that crashed.
The film has been playing in several theaters nationwide, often with McKenzie doing Q&As. He hopes it will be........