1 month ago
Actor-director Ben McKenzie isn’t acrophobic to make a bold statement. For instance, erstwhile we meet up astatine a edifice successful Miami to talk his debut documentary, Everyone Is Lying to You for Money, he’s wearing a bluish shot headdress stitched pinch nan words “Make Lying Wrong Again.”
That clear reference to a definite caretaker of nan White House and his governmental activity is by nary intends McKenzie’s astir provocative connection connected matters of urgent relevance. His caller documentary, which opens Friday successful New York and Los Angeles, takes connected different ineffable cattle (or ineffable bull, if you for illustration nan connection of Wall Street): reverence for cryptocurrency. In short, he views crypto arsenic a scam.
“Crypto really only has 2 usage cases that I’ve seen, which is gambling and crime,” he tells maine complete a double espresso astatine nan JW Marriott. “There are each these speculative cryptocurrencies that would see Bitcoin, Ethereum, and nan 20,000 different coins retired there, for illustration Fart Coin and Trump Coin, Melania Coin, CumRocket — my individual favorite. They’re conscionable gambling devices. You’re betting nan value is going to spell up aliases down. You’re astir apt going to suffer because there’s a batch of insider trading and self-dealing.”
McKenzie believes mean group don’t person a realistic measurement to make money disconnected crypto speculation because super-wealthy players manipulate coin values to their advantage.
“The insiders ain nan immense mostly of these coins, sometimes billions of coins. The supplies for non-Bitcoin is unlimited; it’s immoderate they want to put successful nan [computer] code,” McKenzie contends. He points to nan shady believe of “wash trading,” which Nice Actimize defines arsenic “a shape of marketplace manipulation wherever a trader creates nan illusion of trading activity by simultaneously buying and trading nan aforesaid security.”
In nan crypto world, McKenzie asserts, lavation trading useful this way: “You tin group up arsenic galore accounts arsenic you for illustration and nan pseudonymity of nan blockchain obscures who’s buying what from whom. And so, you tin fundamentally conscionable waste and acquisition [back and distant pinch yourself]… and it looks for illustration nan value of nan point is going up, but it’s for illustration 3 paper monte aliases something. You spell to put your existent money successful and [wealthy coin holders] waste to you. And if they bid nan value up enough, they’re conscionable waiting for location to beryllium capable existent money successful nan strategy to [cash out].”
McKenzie earned a grade successful economics from nan University of Virginia earlier he became an character – starring successful The O.C., Southland, and Gotham among different bid and films. During nan pandemic erstwhile acting opportunities were put connected hold, he did a heavy dive into crypto which resulted successful a 2023 book he wrote pinch Jacob Silverman, Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and nan Golden Age of Fraud.
It’s a safe stake President Trump and his family haven’t publication his book, aliases if they did, they ignored it. In 2024, nan president posted connected societal media, “I promised to Make America Great Again, this clip pinch crypto. #WorldLibertyFi is readying to thief make America nan crypto superior of nan world!”
World Liberty Financial issued a alleged “stablecoin” pegged to nan worth of nan U.S. dollar, arsenic good arsenic a “governance token” (an Abu Dhabi royal bought a 49 percent liking successful nan patient for $500 million, per nan Wall Street Journal). The president besides licensed his sanction to nan $TRUMP meme coin. Forbes mag says Trump has made $1.2B disconnected his crypto ventures to date.
“I did not foretell that Trump was going to make this move to crypto because he had antecedently called it a scam successful 2021,” McKenzie says. “Until he could fig retired really to get his cut… He realized nan magnitude of money he could make and, I think, possibly nan powerfulness of utilizing nan crypto religious to get them into his [political] coalition, to get nan crypto lobby and manufacture to springiness him money — because they person truthful overmuch money now, it’s really staggering.”
The head continues, “It’s profoundly fitting that a benignant of fraudulent rate is now being foisted upon us, sold to america by a convicted fraudster president. And nan industry, which was expected to beryllium a guidance to nan excesses of nan authorities and Big Brother and nan state, now is benefiting wildly from nan astir powerful man successful nan authorities giving it his blessing and now must enactment successful his bully graces successful bid to support nan point going.”
Lending credibility to McKenzie’s crypto critique, he saw done Sam Bankman-Fried agelong earlier others did — including galore members of Congress who were only excessively happy to judge donations from nan laminitis of nan crypto speech FTX. McKenzie group up an question and reply pinch SBF astatine nan tallness of his wealthiness and prestige and poked holes successful nan kingpin’s arguments successful favour of crypto.
“It was astir apt nan strangest hr of my life,” McKenzie says of his sit-down pinch Bankman-Fried successful Manhattan. “I prepared arsenic extensively arsenic I could by watching interviews pinch him, what he mightiness opportunity to immoderate peculiar mobility and what mightiness beryllium my rebuttal, and tin we get to a deeper truth beyond nan talking points? Because he was really conscionable repeating talking points complete and over… Many members of nan financial property were conscionable taking it, conscionable accepting immoderate he was saying uncritically… It was doing a disservice to nan public.”
It wasn’t until good aft McKenzie’s brushwood pinch SBF that nan latter’s crypto empire collapsed. Bankman-Fried was yet charged pinch securities fraud, money laundering and different alleged crimes. He’s serving a 25-year condemnation successful national prison.
There are galore humorous moments successful nan movie (including moving jokes astatine McKenzie’s disbursal astir group perpetually identifying him pinch The O.C. and thing other from his acting career). Barbs are aimed astatine Matt Damon, Tom Brady, and Larry David for making pro-crypto TV commercials.
“Never heard thing from immoderate of these folks,” McKenzie notes. “The constituent is not evidently to azygous immoderate 1 individual retired per se, but by nan aforesaid token — nary pun intended — If I’m trying to conflict this, essentially, nationalist relations run up against a very monolithic foe, nan multi-trillion dollar crypto manufacture — it’s not that big, but that’s what they declare it to beryllium — benignant of nan champion instrumentality astatine my disposal is humor, is mocking them. It’s incredibly powerful if done correctly, and surely not conscionable maine alone. I mean, nan Matt Damon South Park section is really fantastic. If you haven’t seen that aliases haven’t seen it successful a while, it’s worthy a rewatching. But I want to telephone them out, and nary of it’s personal. Personally, I felt for illustration they should person apologized and fixed nan money backmost aliases fixed it to nan victims aliases whatever. That’s what I would person liked to person seen done.”
A throughline successful nan movie is McKenzie’s narration pinch his wife, character Morena Baccarin, and their young kids. She appears supportive of her husband’s crypto investigation yet can’t thief rolling her eyes connected juncture astatine nan zeal of his pursuit.
“It’s decidedly a bid of conversations betwixt Morena and me,” that culminated successful nan family’s participation, he says. “At nan extremity of nan day, I consciousness comfortable wherever we landed. We asked our children who was comfortable; 1 of them really wanted to beryllium successful it, 1 of them didn’t… I dream I don’t person immoderate staggering therapy measure later. But nan logic that we ended up doing that is that I had each this footage that didn’t really person a communicative thread to it because it was interviews pinch fraudsters and Senate testimony… But who’s travel are we on? What are we watching? And nan evident was, well, it’s me. And okay, if it’s me, past what do group cognize astir me? The O.C. So, make nosy of yourself first and benignant of beryllium merciless and past hopefully they’re connected your broadside aliases astatine slightest unfastened to being connected your broadside and past show them a nosy story.”
He adds, “The thought was, erstwhile we benignant of settled connected nan structure, make it arsenic funny arsenic imaginable astatine nan top, and past benignant of, if you’ll excuse nan phrase, ‘kick them successful nan nuts’ astatine nan end, because you’re only going to get to that spot wherever you’re capable to gain nan liking of nan assemblage successful this thing, if they’ve been entertained astatine nan beginning. So hopefully we walked that line.”
