The team behind the blockchain network Solana has removed a controversial ad posted on its X account after a immense backlash in political messaging around gender identity.
The more than two-and-half minutes ad for the Solana Accelerate Conference Na -Post On March 17 with the caption “America is back.
The therapist responded that he should do “something more productive, such as having a new gender” and later said that the person should “focus on pronouns.”
While the conversation was talking, the man jumped and launched a monologue amidst the swelling of patriotic music, saying he wanted to “build onchain and recapture my place as a beacon of change” and wanted to “invent technologies, not genders” in a bright excavation of progressive values.
Prior to its removal, the ad was viewed more than 1.2 million times and raised up more than 1,300 comments and 1,400 repost, a majority of which it hated for its handling of gender identity and for avoiding the A highly dividing Political issues.
“They moved it because their business hurt, not because they thought it was wrong,” Cinneamhain Ventures partner Adam Cochran write until x on March 18.
It took them 9 hours to delete it.
Also all the major players in Solana’s ecosystem suddenly removed their tweets that promote/support ad and RT’D and liked it takes about being bad.
They approved it, supported it and celebrated it.
They moved it because it hurt … pic.twitter.com/kpmerdptcn
– Adam Cochran (AdamScochran.eth) (@adamScochran) March 18, 2025
Solana did not say why it removed the ad. The Solana Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sean O’Connor, operating chief on Web3 Infrastructure Firm Blocknative, write In X, “It’s super deaf tone.”
“At a time people are rejecting passports and the government has deleted … is this the ad you released?” he added.
On his first day to return to the White House, President Donald Trump recovered Joe Biden’s executive orders aimed at preventing discrimination based on sex and sexual orientation.
He also signed an order that recognized only two sexes – male and female – and that was the choice for Americans to choose “X” as a gender in passports.
Doublezero operating chief david mcintyre Called Solana’s ad was “scary” and asked why Solana didn’t “maintain the message instead of driving people and eased serious cultural issues.”
Nicolas Pennie, the co-founder of Solana Development Platform Helius, Says In X that “Virtue signaling will always be cringe regardless of political ideology.”
Others who first support the ads also pulled their support in the middle of the backlash.
Related: Crypto companies spent $ 134M in 2024 US elections, raising concerns over influence
Multicoin capital co-founder Tushar Jain write To X that he deleted his initial Post praises the ad “after some constipation.”
He previously called the ad “brave and dangerous” and said former vice president Kamala Harris played the therapist’s role is the “only thing that could be better.”
In his recession statement, Jain said it was more effective to “focus on deeper cultural war issues such as the views of the world’s oppression view, not the war issues of the cultural surface such as pronouns,” and the ad could send a message “without avoiding a portion of the audience.”
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