Hollywood Star-Turned-Skeptic Drops Trailer for Controversial Anti-Crypto Documentary - Crypto Economy

TL;DR

• Ben McKenzie’s documentary trailer labels crypto market “pretty stupid.”
• Film features SBF, Celsius’ Mashinsky, and President Bukele interviews.
• Bankman-Fried appeals 25-year sentence and seeks Trump’s attention.

Actor Ben McKenzie, known for his roles in Gotham and The OC, dropped the trailer for his cryptocurrency documentary. The film, titled “Everyone Is Lying to You for Money” and distributed by international agency The Forge, shows McKenzie describing the crypto market as “pretty stupid” and traces his path from Hollywood actor to one of the industry’s most vocal critics. The trailer includes 2022 footage of then-FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried and former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky, captured before both companies collapsed.

The documentary assembles an unconventional cast. Interviews include actors Morena Baccarin and Gerard Butler, along with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, who in 2021 pushed for bitcoin to become legal tender in his country

Butler admitted to McKenzie that he made money investing in crypto but openly acknowledged he “didn’t actually know anything” about the asset he bet on. The trailer also shows McKenzie directly pressing Bankman-Fried on how much money he donated to politicians.

McKenzie began studying the crypto market in 2020, while still working in Hollywood. The collapse of FTX in 2022 accelerated his public stance. That same year, he testified before the US Senate at a hearing examining the exchange’s downfall, calling the industry “the largest Ponzi scheme in history.”

Bankman-Fried Pursues Two Exit Routes From Federal Prison

While the documentary brings his story to a general audience, Bankman-Fried faces his own reality from a US federal prison cell. In 2023, a jury found him guilty of seven felony counts tied to the misuse of FTX customer funds. The judge handed down a sentence of 25 years.


Since his 2024 sentencing, Bankman-Fried has explored two paths to early release. The first is an appeal his lawyers filed with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn both the conviction and the sentence. As of Wednesday, the court had not issued any ruling.

The second path runs through President Donald Trump. Bankman-Fried used social media posts to praise the president’s actions — frequently on topics unrelated to crypto — in an apparent bid to attract his attention. Trump, however, ruled out a pardon for the former CEO in a January interview, stating he was not considering one. For now, both doors remain closed.