Actor Ben McKenzie says crypto is like a ‘Ponzi scheme’

• McKenzie says cryptocurrency resembles an MLM scheme.
• He calls for the need to better regulate and license this market.
• Bitcoin is currently up 80% compared to the start of 2023.

The 80% year-to-date rally in Bitcoin is not enough to support the cryptocurrency’s legitimacy for actor Ben McKenzie.

McKenzie dubs crypto an MLM scheme

McKenzie does not see cryptocurrency as a financial asset in itself.

He views them more as “stories” that can be pushed aside if people stop believing in them. On CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” the actor who played James Gordon in “Gotham” said:

Crypto resembles a Ponzi scheme or a tiered marketing scheme. In MLM, 99% of people lose and 1.0% win. In crypto, it’s an exchange owner, a VC company, a person issuing coins.

However, the US Securities & Exchange Commission recently received several applications including from BlackRock Inc for a Spot Bitcoin ETF signaling institutional interest in BTC.

McKenzie said regulation would help

Last month, regulators sued Binance and Coinbase Global Inc for violating US securities laws.

According to Ben McKenzie, greater regulation and more sophisticated licenses can indeed help turn cryptocurrencies into viable financial markets.

You’re talking about an unregulated, unlicensed market run through corps shells in the Caribbean. Crypto benefits from the gray area between how we classify securities and commodities.

Veteran actors are even more bearish on cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin as the latter are at least limited in terms of supply. Also on Tuesday, Professor Carol Alexander of the University of Sussex said BTC could reach $50,000 by the end of 2023.