Everyone is Lying to You for Money is a must-watch exposé of crypto

In a 2021 ad that ran during the Super Bowl – one of the most-watched TV programmes in the US – the actor Matt Damon walks through a hall displaying some of humanity’s greatest achievements and says, with extreme gravitas, “Fortune favours the brave.” The words crypto.com flash on the screen. The not-at-all-subtle implication is that you too can have it all and do something historic; don’t worry about the risk. This was the moment that Ben McKenzie lost it.

In his documentary Everyone Is Lying To You For Money, you can see McKenzie on his couch in shock at what he’s seen on TV. His personal journey – from an actor with an economics degree (his breakout hit was the teen drama The O.C.) to one of the foremost voices speaking out about the grifters of the cryptocurrency world – makes for an entertaining watch, one that he narrates with a light-hearted tone and a streak of charming self-deprecation. Even though I’ve followed the headline news of crypto scandals for years, I was still shocked to find out what some of the industry’s biggest figures thought they could get away with.

McKenzie documents the rise of crypto over the past decade, its roots in the loss of trust that followed the 2008 financial crisis and his bafflement at the excitement and increasing appetite for what seems to him to be, plainly, a total scam. He takes aim at the huckster billionaires who run crypto exchanges, interviewing a few of the big names in the game – some of whom received prison sentences for financial crimes, including Alexander Mashinsky, the former CEO of now-defunct cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius, and the industry’s ultimate cautionary tale, Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange.

He also takes to task Hollywood elites jumping in to hawk cryptocurrencies they don’t understand, and offers empathy, mixed with a little confusion, to ordinary people who lost big on crypto investments yet still seem convinced it’s the money of the future.

“Not only is crypto not the future of money; it’s the past, and one that we revisit at our peril,” said McKenzie in a Q&A after the screening. He hammers this point home in the movie: there’s nothing new here. Scams have been around since money was invented, and people have been falling for them just as long. There’s a linguistic lie here, too, one that McKenzie said is “the story of the selling of an idea”. So-called stablecoins aren’t stable; their value fluctuates. These currencies aren’t truly decentralised; they just aren’t centrally regulated. “There’s no asset there, it’s lines of code.”

McKenzie’s disdain for the lies behind cryptocurrency is plain to see, both in the movie and in person. But I was pleasantly surprised at his willingness to call out his fellow actors for their role in promoting crypto. No one included in the movie comes off great, but Damon does seem to get particular attention. I asked McKenzie if he’s heard from Damon since the film premiered. “No, I haven’t heard from him, but a while back I saw him on the street in Brooklyn and went like this,” he said, hanging his head down, pulling down an imaginary cap and sunglasses. “Sorry, Matt,” he joked, though I’m sure Damon is doing just fine.

Everyone Is Lying To You For Money is on limited release in the US, and coming to the UK later this year.