“There’s gambling, and then there’s crime. You can facilitate a lot of criminal activity via cryptocurrency.”

It’s a weekday afternoon, and I’m talking to Ben McKenzie about crypto. He’s at home in Brooklyn, and I’m trying not to be starstruck.

If, like me, you came of age in the early 2000s, you’ll remember McKenzie from the OC. Or maybe you’ve seen him in Gotham. But recently, McKenzie has developed a very different persona – the celebrity crypto sceptic.

Where Matt Damon and Kim Kardashian have been, literally, coining it in promoting meme coins, McKenzie has made a film, Everyone is Lying to You for Money, and co-written a book, Easy Money, all about crypto’s dark side.

I wanted to talk to McKenzie because of a…