Bitcoin
Bitcoin commencement speaker defends ayahuasca-fueled speech, praises Satoshi
Ohio State University’s viral commencement speaker isn’t backing down despite the negative attention he’s received now famous speech received: Christopher Pan believes in the potential of Bitcoin, he told Decrypt in an interview. And he thinks you should too.
Why? Pan says that when his interest in Bitcoin was reignited earlier this year, it was dominated by one important trend: The institutions are here.
BlackRock and Fidelity piqued Pan’s interest in February as familiar Wall Street names delved deeper into the esoteric market through spot Bitcoin ETFs, he said. Decrypt. The development encouraged him to buy Bitcoin and he later included mention of it in his graduation speech.
“I’m an MBA from Harvard and a former Facebook employee, so I understand the adoption curves,” said Pan. “Suddenly, I understood: Wow, we’re ready to go mainstream. […] This is Bitcoin IPO time.”
Graduating from OSU in 1999, Pan’s unorthodox commencement speech attracted a lot of attention this week – not only for his suggestion to consider investing in Bitcoin, but also for his musical numbers, magic tricks and ayahuasca-fueled origins. His controversial comments included calling Bitcoin “a very misunderstood asset class,” which drew groans from the public.
Pan himself said he understood little about Bitcoin when he first heard about the asset in 2017. After buying a small amount in 2020, he sold his BTC after a 20% drop, he said.
“So embarrassing,” Pan recalled, adding that a steep drop “scared [him] outside.”
For years, crypto cognoscenti have considered financial institutions as powerful players to watch. Not only yours increasing involvement legitimize the digital asset space, but this year, asset managers’ products have been a main driver of Bitcoin’s year-to-date rally. From Pan’s point of view, this justified an allocation of more than just “virtual money” as before.
“ETFs, for me, offered convenience and a sense of security,” he said, highlighting that he doesn’t have to worry about managing the private keys of a digital wallet with the product. “That was a sign that the asset class had matured enough for me to really take it seriously.”
Before sharing his Bitcoin knowledge with 60,000 Ohio State commencement attendees on Sunday, Pan said he honed his comments in conversations with family and friends. Four weeks after rediscovering Bitcoin, this involved talking to his brother, father, cousins and friends. He didn’t want them to lose Bitcoin and believed the asset could help them financially.
Only in mid-March did Pan decide to include Bitcoin in his speech, he said. While emotional and spiritual health was always something he planned to address, he decided that Bitcoin could be an example of why it is beneficial to have an open mind.
“I was like, ‘You know what? Let me play [it] inside,” he said of Bitcoin’s inclusion. “It was just about financial health, of which Bitcoin was my example of something interesting to look at.”
A social entrepreneur, musician and inspirational speaker, one of Pan’s current ventures involves a positive affirmation jewelry business called My intention. In LinkedIn comments, responding to a post centered on psychedelics, several alleged participants he said his speech on Sunday seemed like promoting his business or agenda.
“All I said was: To be a great investor, you have to be open-minded and look for misunderstood opportunities,” he said. “Unfortunately, people just jump to conclusions.”
Still, Pan believes Bitcoin could solve real-world problems, like solving the U.S. housing shortage, by providing homeowners with an alternative store of value.
Drawing on his experience at management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, Pan said he gathered this new understanding of Bitcoin primarily through “YouTube University.”
This included watching videos of Twitter founder and Block CEO Jack Dorsey talking about Bitcoin, as well as MicroStrategy executive founder and chairman Michael Saylor. One of Dorsey’s conversations left a notable impression on Pan, he said, as it suggested that Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakatomo, was somewhat charitable.
“Here’s a trillion-dollar asset class where the founder disappeared after three years and didn’t want to come back and take credit for it,” said Pan. “I thought that was the coolest example of altruism. And I think that’s the most misunderstood part of Bitcoin.”
Edited by Andrew Hayward