Hollywood actor Ben McKenzie, after three years of filming, released the latest trailer for his cryptocurrency critique documentary “Everyone Is Lying to You for Money,” scheduled for North American release on April 17, 2026. The film features high-profile interviewees such as SBF and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, directly claiming that the crypto industry is “the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.”
(Previous summary: SBF documentary “The Fall of the Crypto King” aired on BBC! Featuring the Wall Street golden boy’s descent into hell)
(Additional background: Netflix is producing an FTX collapse series “SBF and Caroline: Love and Destruction,” with a star-studded cast revealed)
Ben McKenzie, a Hollywood actor known for his role as Ryan Atwood in “The O.C.” and later as a young Jim Gordon in “Gotham,” has recently taken on the role of a “cryptocurrency critic.” His upcoming documentary “Everyone Is Lying to You for Money” (Tout le monde vous ment pour de l’argent) is based on his co-authored book “Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud,” which topped The New York Times bestseller list.
He has not only spoken out in the media but also testified before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee in December 2022, accusing the crypto industry of systemic fraud. In 2023, he co-authored the book with journalist Jacob Silverman. This documentary is his directorial debut and is set to premiere in North America on April 17, 2026.
The trailer features McKenzie visiting key figures in the crypto industry.
Six months before his indictment, SBF, founder of FTX, was interviewed, still portraying himself as a “maximal altruist,” a stark contrast to his later courtroom image.
Another interviewee is Nayib Bukele, the Salvadoran president who made Bitcoin legal tender, becoming the first head of state to back national credit with crypto assets. The success or failure of this policy remains controversial.
The film also includes an interview with former Celsius Network CEO Alex Mashinsky, whose lending platform collapsed in 2022, freezing hundreds of thousands of users’ assets. Mashinsky later faced a 12-year fraud sentence and is currently incarcerated.
Beyond industry insiders, the film features actors Morena Baccarin and Gerard Butler, illustrating the roles celebrities play in crypto marketing, as well as real victims, including a Texas businessman tearfully recounting losing his life savings on camera.
The trailer begins with McKenzie bluntly stating, “Cryptocurrency. It’s pretty stupid,” setting the tone for the film. He recalls his initial reaction when first encountering crypto:
"What the hell is this? All this crypto stuff makes no sense,
unless the entire crypto world is a scam."
The core of the film lies in how the crypto industry has packaged itself as a “financial revolution,” systematically ignoring, suppressing, or deliberately obscuring traditional financial warnings, leaving retail investors unprotected and falling into traps. McKenzie calls cryptocurrencies “the biggest Ponzi scheme in history” and directly states that this “house of cards will eventually fall,” yet the industry continues to roll forward at an even faster pace.
Filming took place over three years across New York, Austin, Miami, London, and El Salvador, covering the rise and fall cycle of the crypto industry from its inception to the present. For crypto believers, McKenzie’s critical stance is no longer news, but the trailer shows that the documentary has secured rare interview resources, making it particularly intriguing.