A Debatable Solana Ad Ignites Crypto Community Discord

An advertisement by Solana, which was removed 9 hours after being uploaded, has provoked disagreement among crypto enthusiasts regarding woke and unwoke perspectives.

On March 17, the official X account of Solana published a 2.5-minute advertisement. The video featured a man named "America" who discusses his views on innovation, such as interplanetary travel, AI, and cryptocurrency, with a therapist. The therapist diagnoses him with "rational thinking syndrome" and advises him to concentrate on creating a new gender identity instead. America insists on continuing to think about innovation and action, but the therapist recommends shifting his attention from verbs like "doing" and "innovating" to pronouns.

Despite receiving 1.2 million views, the ad was taken down 9 hours after being posted, causing a rift within the crypto community over its tone and messaging.

Many criticized the ad, describing it as "cringe," "toxic," and offensive, leading to several opinions about the current state of the culture war in crypto.

One user suggested that the ad might have been trying to "highlight the fact that USA woke up from the woke mind virus and is focusing on crypto," but stopped short of endorsing it:

Others didn't find the ad as offensive. For instance, one user commented that there was nothing in the ad to be upset about. If the issue was the pronoun part, he added, "that’s been pushed harder over the last four years than any real innovation."

Joshua Jake from Discover Crypto praised the ad as "brilliant marketing."

"Anyone complaining that 'crypto is supposed to be decentralized and apolitical' is missing the point entirely. The ad is designed to be cringy rage bait, and you’re all taking the bait—expanding its reach even further," said Joshua.

Mike Solana, a disinformation researcher, shared Jake's perspective:

"Have you noticed people digging back to 2020 for unhinged article headlines, and posting them today for rage bait? That is because culture has changed, and people who built identities as demon slayers have no more demons left to slay. They will be turning on each other next."

Another point of controversy was Solana's decision to remove the ad in response to community backlash, which some considered an overreaction.

"Deleting it means Solana was shook," one user noted, suggesting that Solana should focus on addressing the network's issues rather than reacting to social media noise.

Adam Cochran, a partner at Cinneamhain Ventures, stated that Solana removed the ad to prevent further damage to the business—not because they thought it was wrong.

"It took them 9 hours to delete it.

Additionally, all the major players in the Solana ecosystem suddenly deleted 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 the brand."

On March 18, Anatoly Yakovenko, CEO of Solana Labs, issued a public apology:

"The ad was bad, and it’s still bothering me. I am ashamed I downplayed it instead of just acknowledging it – mean and punching down on a marginalized group. I am grateful for the ecosystem developers and artists who immediately called it out both publicly and privately. You are the only positive aspect of this whole situation. I’ll do whatever I can to ensure the Solana foundation remains focused on its mission of decentralization and open-source software development and stays out of culture wars."

Regarding market sentiment, SOL began trading on March 17 at $126.17. However, a few hours after the ad was posted, the price of SOL slightly decreased to $125.50, closing the day at $128.28.