‘Gotham’ Actor Ben McKenzie Breaks with Crypto-Promoting Celebs Like Matt Damon, Tells Senate Hearing Industry Is ‘Largest Ponzi Scheme In History’

A number of celebrities have found themselves facing scrutiny over their past promotion of crypto amid the industry’s recent struggles and the massive collapse of FTX.

The Senate held a hearing on Wednesday for which a celebrity was one of the invited guests, but one who does not promote crypto as easily as, say, Matt Damon or some others. Ben McKenzie, known for his roles on shows like Southland and Gotham, spoke about crypto before lawmakers on Wednesday and referred to it as the “biggest Ponzi scheme in history.”

“In my opinion, the cryptocurrency industry represents the largest Ponzi scheme in history,” he said, adding that “when the dust settles,” crypto could stand as a “fraud” far worse than the infamous Bernie Madoff scandal.

Crypto investors, including those tied into the FTX collapse, were “sold a bill of goods,” McKenzie said at another point.

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

New York Times reporter David Yaffe-Bellany appeared on MSNBC to help explain McKenzie’s appearance at the hearing. The reporter spoke to the actor earlier this year and discovered he was frustrated with fellow entertainers pushing crypto so hard.

“I think that he recognized that a lot of colleagues, fellow actors and entertainers were accepting money from the crypto industry and kind of promoting it without explaining the risk that are involved for these kind of experimental financial products and it really bothered him,” Yaffe-Bellany said.

McKenzie has long been a vocal critic of the crypto industry and he has a book titled Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud coming in 2023, which he co-authored with Jacob Silverman.

“Finally I’ve found a crypto project worth shilling: my book. Easy Money is about two things — money and lying — and while I know a little about the former from my econ degree, it’s the latter that fascinates me,” McKenzie said in a public statement about his upcoming book on cryptocurrency.

Watch above via MSNBC.