'I'm really sorry:' Chris Pan on Ohio State Bitcoin speech, and how he was picked

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Chris Pan, Ohio State University's most recent commencement speaker, has told NBC4 what he should've changed about his speech while standing by certain portions.

Dubbed a "social entrepreneur" by Ohio State ahead of the speech, Pan is a 1999 graduate from the university with previous stints at PepsiCo China, McKinsey and Co., and Facebook. He now runs his own company called Spirit Labs, which includes custom bracelet-maker MyIntent in its fold.

But Pan, returning to his alma mater on May 5, drew boos from an audience of graduates and parents at Ohio Stadium when he mentioned Bitcoin. Calling it a "misunderstood" asset, he encouraged attendees to keep an open mind and look into it as an investment while reminding them of runaway inflation in the U.S.

"I have tons of love mail, I have hate mail too," Pan acknowledged. "You get a little bit of both out of 70,000 people."

In an interview Friday with NBC4, Pan said the controversial moment was born from a March 8 email asking him to be the speaker.

"I asked all the faculty and staff that I know are at the university, 'Did you nominate me?' And nobody said they did," Pan said. "I couldn't really believe it. It was such a huge honor. And I immediately screenshotted it, and I texted to people here at the university. And I said, 'Is this what I think it is?' Like, just to confirm, because I didn't want to jump the gun."

Pan was joined on stage for the speech by Ohio State President Ted Carter, who also happens to be on the board of directors for a nuclear-powered Bitcoin mining company. And while the pair shares what Carter called a "completely random" connection, Pan admitted the cryptocurrency was more of a new discovery for him. He doesn't think it had anything to do with his being picked to speak.

"People speculate that there was some Bitcoin conspiracy," Pan said. "I only got into Bitcoin like mid-February. That was when I got the news of the ETF and then I spent two weeks really understanding it for myself."

Pan voiced support in his speech and the interview specifically for Bitcoin ETFs, a new investment option that lets people buy into a fund that tracks the price of the cryptocurrency. While Bitcoin ETFs simplify secure investing into it, they also come with some disadvantages compared to buying the coin outright.

An investor placing money in one of these funds won't directly own the cryptocurrency, meaning they can't use it outside of the ETF. And while direct cryptocurrency can be bought, sold, sent and received at any time, ETF buys and sales are limited by stock market hours, as well as accompanied by additional fees.

Pan noted he had "dabbled" directly with Bitcoin in 2020 before selling it at a loss. But he said he made his first social media post about the cryptocurrency on March 2, six days before he received the email inviting him to speak. Carter and Pan both acknowledged that they talked about Bitcoin at the dinner before commencement. There, the social entrepreneur also received another answer from the president: "This year, they wanted an alumni."

"It's not surprising because I've done other events here, I was on the cover of the 2018
alumni magazine," Pan said. "And they did a big spread on me and the bracelets."

Pan also wasn't shy about how he made the speech, announcing on LinkedIn that he used the psychedelic drug ayahuasca to write it. He told NBC4 he has previously used the drug multiple times, starting out for therapy. Looking back, he doesn't regret doing so or speaking about it publicly.

"You look at John Lennon, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, these are all guys who've worked with psychedelics, you know, LSD, in particular, to fuel creativity," Pan said. "And obviously, this is the biggest speech of my life. Of course I was gonna do psychedelics, how could I not? It would be crazy for me not to, right? Because that's part of my practice."

Pan pointed out that Ohio State is home to a group whose entire focus is studying the drugs, alongside some states in the U.S. making moves toward legalizing certain psychedelics for therapy.

"Over at Bricker Hall, we have one of a handful of psychedelic clinical research centers in the middle of campus that a lot of people probably don't know about," Pan said. "And it started with researching for veterans' PTSD. … By me talking about it, yes, I'm getting a lot of flack. But I do hope it's going to help a lot of people. And it's going to take ayahuasca from 'What the heck is this' to 'Oh, it's just another healing modality.'"

On what was possibly the biggest point of conflict in his speech, Pan said he felt misinterpreted about Bitcoin, as well as comments about barriers to investing: "fear, laziness and closed-mindedness." NBC4 asked him if he saw how that could come off to an audience with fresh student debt.

"Some people took offense because they think I was calling them that," Pan said. "I was not, I was calling myself that. I was that person who was fearful and who was lazy and who was closed-minded. … In terms of debt, I actually had a section that I ended up cutting out, because I just didn't have time. And it was around, you know, we buy things we don't need to impress people we don't like. And we have an emptiness inside us, a sense of unworthiness, emptiness, you know, not being loved. And we use retail therapy."

The speaker also issued an apology, and separately explained what he would have changed in his message about Bitcoin.

"I think it comes from a notion, probably a couple of things. One is what is appropriate at a commencement, right? Because they're like, 'Well, you know, I didn't want to hear about this.' … Yeah, that's probably right, so I apologize. I didn't mean to offend you, I just thought it was really important," Pan said. "My main message isn't even around Bitcoin, it's around being open-minded, it's around love, it's around conflict resolution. If I were to do it over again, I would probably make it clear that I only got in three months ago."

At the same time, Pan stood by his message about researching cryptocurrency and investing in general.

"I think don't put your rent money in there," Pan said. "Don't put money you need over the next two years, three years, right? If it's something you need in the short term, don't put it in there. But if it's long-term money, that's five years and up, which hopefully all of us are thinking about retirement. Obviously, the earlier we start saving for retirement, the bigger the nest egg is going to be and that's where we get to retire. For any long-term investment, I'm so bullish on Bitcoin. I've never been more bullish on an asset class."

Pan said while his speech may have been criticized, the boos he received on stage will be worth it if a graduate says he helped them years from now.

"I'm really sorry, if you had a bad experience. I genuinely am," Pan said. "That was not my intention. I have never had an intention to make people upset. … My intention was actually to be helpful."

Regarding the MyIntent bracelets he promised to the stadium at the end of his speech, Pan said his company sent codes to OSU for each student and three of their attendees to get free bracelets. He noted the university did not give students' emails to MyIntent, and OSU will handle sending the codes out. Redeeming the codes is optional.