IN THE EARLY 2000 S, HE GRACED THE WALLS OF TEENAGE BEDROOMS ACROSS the country. More recently, he’s been on the floor of the Senate, testifying about the fraudulent nature of cryptocurrency. Actor, advocate, and author Ben McKenzie isn’t sure how to define himself. He’s even talked to his therapist about it.
At a cafe near his office in Brooklyn Heights one April morning, the Texas native, 44, says that his younger self would never have believed he’d become the heartthrob Ryan Atwood from The O.C. or Detective Jim Gordon, the future commissioner, on Gotham. Even more unimaginable would have been the fact that he has just written a book, Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Ca- sino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud, which comes out July 18.
Struck by boredom and FOMO during the pandemic, McKenzie noticed that more and more ordinary people were getting rich quickly from crypto investing. He was
