Ben McKenzie, the former teen heartthrob who starred in “The O.C.” and “Gotham,” jokingly refers to his somewhat recent career pivot as going from a “mid-level celebrity” to part-time crypto critic. A few years ago, at a time when many of McKenzie’s actor peers were shilling things like EthereumMAX and FTX, he started building a brand as a blockchain scold by going after what he called the “Hollywoodization of crypto.”
The actor’s latest performance reached its apogee today, with the publication of a long-awaited anti-crypto book called “Easy Money,” co-written by freelance journalist Jacob Silverman. The two started working together during the height of the pandemic, when acting work was hard to come by. In their first co-written article, published by Slate in 2021, the duo chastise actors Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather and Tom Brady, among others who were all paid crypto endorsers. (Kardashian and Mayweather were later fined by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.)
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It’s hard to call McKenzie’s commentary grandstanding, considering so much of what he says about the industry is at least rooted in partial truth. But he does have a habit of making massive, totalizing claims like crypto “represents the largest Ponzi scheme in history” and calling the entire industry a fraud. A graduate 20-odd years ago from the University of Virginia with a degree in economics, McKenzie also wanders out into the realm of economic history, and is comfortable enough saying “private money” itself has failed.
You might think such a scold would steer well clear of the thing he’s criticizing. But in McKenzie’s case, he was all-in for a time.
In a recent Guardian profile, the actor disclosed he lost as much as $250,000 trying to short the market. Allegedly he got the timing wrong. The article doesn’t share many details, so we can only speculate but this wager could undercut much of what McKenzie has been saying over the years. In other words, the self-declared paid liar is also a hypocrite.
Betting crypto will collapse is one thing, but betting the industry will collapse without disclosing you stand to…
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