Solana’s anti-woke ad sparks community backlash

After nearly nine hours of mounting criticism, Solana pulled an ad that featured a therapy session ridiculing pronoun discussions, sparking debate over its messaging.

Intentionally or not, the Solana Foundation found itself at the center of controversy after posting — and then quickly deleting — an ad that critics said mocked gender identity issues. The ad, which was seemingly meant to promote the Solana Accelerate conference, featured a skit where “America” attended a therapy session, only to be told to “focus on pronouns” and “come up with new genders” instead of pursuing technological innovation.

The ad immediately sparked outrage across the crypto community. Some saw it as an attempt to align with right-wing cultural rhetoric, while others viewed it as unnecessary political pandering.

“This is so fucking tone-deaf,” Sean O’Connor, operating chief at Web3 firm Blocknative, wrote on X. “At a time when trans people are getting denied passports and being erased by the government… this is the ad you put out?”

Deleted after nine hours

The ad, posted on March 17, was removed about nine hours later after receiving over a million views. Many key figures in the Solana ecosystem who had initially engaged with the post — by liking or retweeting it — later distanced themselves.

Adam Cochran, a partner at Cinneamhain Ventures, pointed out in an X post that support for the ad disappeared almost as quickly as it was posted. “They rolled it back because it hurt their business, not because they thought it was wrong,” he wrote.

Some early supporters of the ad later reversed their stance. Tushar Jain, co-founder of Multicoin Capital, deleted his initial post calling it “bold and risky” and later suggested it should have addressed “deeper culture war issues” rather than “surface” topics like pronouns. The X account for NFT collection Pudgy Penguins also appeared to endorse the ad at first, replying with a rocket GIF, but later quietly deleted the post.

Shift in values

The backlash wasn’t just about the ad itself but what it signified. As CoinDesk notes, just months ago, the Solana Foundation had positioned itself as a supporter of diversity and inclusion. At its Singapore conference, its code of conduct explicitly prohibited discrimination based on “gender identity and expression.” Now, some felt that Solana was shifting its messaging to align with the new political climate following Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

“The problem with the Solana ad is not the ad in isolation,” wrote Ceteris, head of research at Delphi Digital, “but the fact that ever since the election, they have gone from a non-political tech platform to pandering to the current political climate. And when you change your values based on who is in charge, you’re valueless.”

The sentiment was echoed by Coinbase’s Base product lead Aneri Patel, who criticized Solana’s approach. “This new Solana ad misses the mark so much,” Patel wrote in an X post. “Offensive, cringe, and pandering. Base is for everyone. Solana co-opted the ‘is for everyone’ phrase last week too. This ad shows there’s still a long way to go in truly embracing that ethos.”

‘Not like it represents the ecosystem’

Amid the uproar, Matt Sorg, Solana Foundation’s vice president of technology, tried to clarify that the ad didn’t represent the entire ecosystem, writing in an X post that “despite it being posted on the main channel, it’s not like it represents the ecosystem being excited about the message.”

Sorg also suggested that only a “very few people” had direct involvement with the ad’s production and that much of the work had been outsourced. However, this explanation did little to quiet criticism from those who questioned how an ad like this could have been approved at all.

Some in the community were quick to point out that Solana’s identity crisis was becoming somewhat of a pattern. “Solana trying so hard to be the white man chain,” X user Heart joked, “while the avg tx size makes you think it’s based in Bangalore.”

While many were upset by the ad, others still defended it, arguing that the backlash was overblown and the ad itself was “actually brilliant marketing.”