How Gotham and OC Star Ben McKenzie Became Cryptocurrency’s Biggest Celebrity Critic

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Actor Ben McKenzie, who starred in Gotham and the OC, has become an outspoken critic of the cryptocurrency, going so far as to call it “the biggest Ponzi scheme in history”.

McKenzie, who plans to publish a book next year about the cryptocurrency industry, spoke out about the issue last year, writing for Slate about how celebrities promoting crypto were a “moral disaster”.

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“I would suggest that we celebrities do our due diligence on what we support, especially when it comes to questionable ‘investments’,” McKenzie wrote with Jacob Silverman for Slate in October 2021. “Right now, crypto is a wildly anarchic, unregulated form of Wild West financial capitalism that is fueled by rampant speculation, sketchy stablecoins, and the murky dealings of a few big whales and insiders whose influence over these markets may be bigger than most traders realize.

More than a year later, cryptocurrency firm FTX, which ran ads featuring celebrities such as Tom Brady and Larry David, has collapsed, and cryptocurrency skepticism is close to a record high.

On Wednesday, McKenzie testified before the Senate Banking Committee proclaiming FTX and its subsidiary Alameda Research a Ponzi scheme on par with Bernie Madoff’s long-running scheme that defrauded investors out of nearly $65 billion.

“Investment contracts that are effectively worthless are often described as Ponzi schemes, which are regulated under US law by the Securities and Exchange Commission. In my view, the cryptocurrency industry represents the largest Ponzi scheme of the story,” McKenzie said. “In fact, by the time the dust settles, crypto could well be a fraud at least 10 times bigger than Madoff.”

McKenzie also felt that people defrauded by FTX and others who have invested in various cryptocurrencies are being lied to about what they have invested money in.

“I believe they and the roughly 40 million other Americans who have invested in cryptocurrency have been sold a bill of goods,” McKenzie said. “They have been lied to, in ways both big and small, by a seemingly powerful crypto industry whose entire existence actually depends on misinformation, hype and, yes, fraud.”

Speaking to CNN This Morning Thursday, McKenzie explained how he understood something was wrong with cryptocurrency because he understood the language from his acting background.

“I know lying because I do it for a living. As an actor, you know what people do and how they use language,” McKenzie said.

McKenzie has dismissed attempts to sell cryptocurrency as a lie by calling the blockchain “innovative” or explaining how it will create new wealth.

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“As I know as a storyteller, just because it’s a story doesn’t mean it’s a true story,” McKenzie said.

The Senate hearing at which McKenzie spoke also included testimony from other experts, including Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary.

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