Actor Ben McKenzie, who starred in Gotham and the OC, has become a vocal critic of cryptocurrency, going as far as calling it the “largest Ponzi scheme in history.”
McKenzie, who plans to release a book next year about the cryptocurrency industry, became vocal about the issue last year, writing for Slate about how celebrities promoting crypto was a “moral disaster.”
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“I would suggest that we celebs do our due diligence on what we lend our support to, especially when it comes to dubious ‘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 greater than most traders realize.”
More than a year later, cryptocurrency company FTX, which aired advertisements featuring celebrities such as Tom Brady and Larry David, has collapsed, and skepticism over cryptocurrency is near an all-time high.
On Wednesday, McKenzie testified before the Senate Banking Committee by proclaiming FTX and its subsidiary Alameda Research a Ponzi scheme on the same level as Bernie Madoff’s longtime scheme that defrauded investors out of nearly $65 billion.
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