The 46-year-old actor and author - who is best known for portraying Ryan Atwood in teen drama 'The OC' in the 00s - recently shot a new 90-minute documentary film, 'Everyone is Lying to You For Money', in which he delves deeper into the world of crypto.

Ben - who has an economics degree, and has penned book 'Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud' - told The Sunday Times newspaper: "Crypto can’t actually do anything in the real world, except illegal activity that you wouldn’t do otherwise.

"At best, you’re just transferring money, real money, between different players - and some people are going to win, some people are going to lose.

"The problem is, the game you’re playing is not fair.

"You’re playing in an unregulated, unlicensed casino, effectively."

While Bitcoin increased in value a lot prior to 2021, Ben admits it "doesn't prove anything" to own a lot of the cryptocurrency.

He said: "If you got in early - basically, prior to 2021 - then you’ve seen the value of your bitcoin rise enormously.

"But that doesn’t prove anything, really.

"It can’t sustain itself for ever. Eventually you just run out of new people to put money in.

"A Ponzi scheme, which I still believe crypto is at its heart, can last for a very long time. Bernie Madoff ran his Ponzi scheme for decades."