According to U.Today, Christopher Pan, a former Facebook executive, faced a negative reaction from the audience during his commencement speech at Ohio State University when he mentioned Bitcoin. Pan, who was the commencement speaker, was booed by the entire stadium after he referred to Bitcoin, which he claimed to have discovered only recently. Despite the audience's harsh response, Pan continued to promote Bitcoin, describing it as a misunderstood asset class and a decentralized asset resistant to censorship. He also highlighted the transformative potential of Bitcoin ETFs.
The incident was captured on video and shared widely, attracting attention from many critics of the cryptocurrency industry, including researcher Molly White. The Bitcoin community, however, seemed to take the negative reaction lightly, with one user jokingly comparing the situation to his family reunions.
Born in Taiwan, Pan moved to the U.S. at the age of seven and joined Facebook in 2007 when the platform had only 50 million users. He left the company in 2012, feeling unfulfilled despite achieving financial freedom. Pan then founded the MyIntent Project, a startup known for allowing users to create custom bracelets. In 2020, he also became a mental health advocate. Pan revealed in a LinkedIn post that he used a hallucinogen called Ayahuasca to write his commencement speech.