There's a big gap between desperation and greed that a lot of Americans are seeing play out in 2025, and Cold Wallet is a tight crypto-thriller that both reflects and narrows that divide.
"Based on a slightly true story," it's a movie that expresses the desperation and frustration a lot of Americans feel today with financial institutions and the super-rich.
Cold Wallet is a heist / home invasion movie with a bit of a tech twist. Three Reditors lose everything in a cryptocurrency scam and band together to track down the kingpin in hopes of getting their money back. Tphis is probably a topic many viewers are unfamiliar with, yet director Cutter Hodierne does a great job guiding us through the world of Bitcoin, meme coins and other make-believe money. Cryptocurrency is presented as essentially a new form of gambling, appealing to bigshot "traders" making millions and regular people looking for quick ways out of desperate life situations.
We follow Billy (Raul Castillo) a blue-collar guy who wants to provide the American Dream for his shared-custody daughter. He imagines a day when she will be a princess visiting him in his mansion, and she believes it. For Billy, living a comfortable life isn't enough; the pendulum needs to swing from insolvent to multi-millionaire; there is no in-between. The top players in this game are making millions overnight trading in air, so why can't he? The line between desperation and greed becomes fuzzy.
One day, while riding high on his "Tulip" coin profits, everything crashes. Not only is his account drained, but he's now in debt for more $40,000. It seems Charles Hegel (Josh Brener), the creator of Tulip, has cashed out and scammed everyone who bought it.
Eva (Melonie Diaz), Billy's friend on a crypto subreddit, has managed to locate Hegel and proposes they go to his secluded mansion and force him to return their money. Joining the two of them is Dom (Tony Cavalero), Billy's spiritual friend who also sees this as a Robin Hood opportunity to give money back to all the victims of Charles Hegel.
Side note: kudos to Cutter Hodierne for using the actual Reddit, YouTube, and other websites. I have no idea what the rules are about this sort of thing, but it always takes me out of the moment when I see Hollywood OS.
This is sort of a five-man-band story with each character serving a different archetype. Eva is the brains of the operation, Dom is the heart and brawn, while Billy represents the everyman leader caught up in events he never anticipated. Hegel may be the evil, greedy villain, but it's not that simple.
All the characters are all motivated by greed to some extent. Cold Wallet asks us to decide if there is a degree of greed that's okay, even honorable. We all move that bar to justify our own actions. At what point does greed define you? We seem to have no difficulty recognizing and condemning it in other people.
Charles Hegel is a horrible person who represents the worst kind of sleazy crypto bro. In a recent interview, I asked Josh Brener about creating a delicious a character we love to hate. He reminded me that every villain is a hero in his own story and that even Hegel might have been motivated by more than simply greed.
Is home invasion and holding a man hostage at gunpoint justified? Do some people just deserve what's coming to them? Cold Wallet asks us to confront our own biases and moral compasses.
Aside from all this, Cold Wallet is a thrilling adventure taking place mostly in a single location. The script is tight, full of surprises, and kept me constantly wondering what would happen to each of these four people. There are also some very funny and ironic moments, mostly from Dom, the lovable new-age wall of meat who reminds Billy to find his spiritual center before pulling a trigger. If you've seen The Righteous Gemstones, Tony Cavalero played a very similar character and I love it
I'm not a huge consumer of heist movies so I'm not sure how this will be received by superfans of Mission Impossible or Ocean's Eleven. It's not full of action and it's certainly not a big budget Hollywood production, in fact, the film was shot in a very cold and snowy Massachusetts.
Bottom line: Cold Wallet is a tense thriller worth seeing, even if you're not into heist flicks. I had a lot of fun with this story and these distinct characters because the performances were so good. Cutter Hodierne has crafted a well shot movie that zips along and tells a compelling story that balances tension, action, and character depth with social commentary. The ending is a little sad, yet equally satisfying. Is it justified? Check your moral compass.
