TLDR
- Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko apologized for a controversial advertisement titled “America Is Back — Time to Accelerate” that was criticized for targeting marginalized groups.
- The ad depicted America as a man in therapy who wanted to focus on innovation and crypto rather than “coming up with a new gender” or “focus on pronouns.”
- The advertisement was deleted approximately nine hours after posting, but had already garnered 1.2 million views.
- Matt Sorg, Solana Foundation VP of Technology, explained that only a few individuals were involved in the ad’s production and much of it was outsourced.
- Yakovenko promised Solana would stay focused on open-source development and decentralization while staying “out of cultural wars.”
Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko has issued a public apology following backlash over an advertisement that was widely criticized for targeting transgender and non-binary individuals.
The controversial ad titled “America Is Back — Time to Accelerate” was posted on Solana’s official X (formerly Twitter) account on March 17, 2025. The two-and-a-half-minute video showed a man representing America in a therapy session.
In the advertisement, the man expressed wanting to focus on innovation and cryptocurrency. The therapist character suggested he should instead do “something more productive, like coming up with a new gender” and later advised him to “focus on pronouns.”
Took them 9 hours to delete it.
Also all the major players in the Solana ecosystem suddenly delete their tweets promoting/supporting the ad and RT’d and liked takes about it being bad.
They approved this, supported it and celebrated it.
They rolled it back because it hurt… pic.twitter.com/kPMERDpTcn
— Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran) March 18, 2025
The man in the ad responded by stating that he wanted “to invent technologies, not genders.” This dialogue sparked immediate criticism from many in the crypto community.
The advertisement reached approximately 1.2 million views before being deleted from Solana’s X account. It remained online for roughly nine hours before removal.
Yakovenko addressed the situation on March 19 in a post on X. “The ad was bad, and it’s still gnawing at my soul,” he wrote.
The CEO expressed remorse for his initial response to the criticism. “I am ashamed I downplayed it instead of just calling it what it is – mean and punching down on a marginalized group,” Yakovenko stated.
The ad was bad, and it’s still gnawing at my soul. I am ashamed I downplayed it instead of just calling it what it is – mean and punching down on a marginalized group. I am grateful for the ecosystem devs and artists that immediately called it what it is both publicly and…
— toly 🇺🇸 (@aeyakovenko) March 19, 2025
He thanked members of the Solana ecosystem who called out the “mess” both publicly and privately. Yakovenko added that these community members were “the only silver lining to this whole mess.”
The Solana Labs CEO promised to use this experience as a learning opportunity. He committed to ensuring Solana stays focused on its core mission of open-source software development and decentralization.
Yakovenko specifically mentioned that Solana would stay “out of cultural wars” moving forward. The official Solana X account, which has 3.3 million followers, reshared Yakovenko’s apology post.
Matt Sorg, Solana Foundation Vice President of Technology, provided additional context about the advertisement’s creation. He explained that only a few individuals were involved in producing the ad.
Sorg clarified that most of the production process had been outsourced to external teams. He emphasized that the ad did not represent the views of the broader Solana community.
Cinneamhain Ventures partner Adam Cochran was among those who criticized the advertisement. Cochran pointed out that transgender developers have made major contributions to open-source software and cryptography.
A GitHub survey from 2017 found that of 5,500 randomly selected open-source developers, 1% identified as transgender and another 1% as non-binary. This representation is higher than the estimated 0.1% to 0.6% of transgender and non-binary people in the general population during 2017-2018.
Cochran argued that the ad failed to recognize the crypto industry’s history of valuing contributions based on merit rather than identity. He questioned how the ad could have passed through multiple approval stages without objections.
The controversy emerged just nine days after Solana’s X account had posted “Solana is for everyone,” highlighting the contradiction between the inclusive message and the ad’s content.
As of this writing, the Solana Foundation has not released an official statement about the incident beyond resharing Yakovenko’s apology. Solana Labs and the Solana Foundation have been contacted for further comment.
The advertisement was meant to promote the upcoming Solana Accelerate conference, which focuses on innovation in the blockchain space.
