Solana Co-Founder Slams Deleted Ad: 'It's Still Gnawing at My Soul'

Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko spoke out Wednesday about the now-deleted “America Is Back—Time to Accelerate” ad that was shared from Solana’s official X (formerly Twitter) account on Monday. 

The ad, which featured themes of American patriotism mixed with right-wing political messaging, received considerable backlash from some corners of the crypto community due to its apparent commentary on gender diversity. Yakovenko said that he should have come out more forcefully about the ad amid the initial pushback.

“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,” posted Yakovenko, the CEO of Solana Labs. “I’ll do whatever I can to make sure Solana Foundation stays focused on its mission of decentralization and open source software development, and out of culture wars.”

Though many were highly critical of the ad, Yakovenko’s reflection was met with mostly positive responses. “I love you owning this directly,” said prominent investor and entrepreneur, Sam Lessin. Others called the post “real leadership,” and shared respect for “taking accountability and publicly owning a mistake.” 

While Yakovenko has been willing to speak about the ad, the Solana Foundation has remained silent about its launch and subsequent deletion, having failed to issue a public statement since Monday. 

However, the Solana X account, which is run by the Solana Foundation, did re-share Yakovenko’s message with its 3.3 million followers on Wednesday.

Representatives for the Foundation have not responded to Decrypt’s requests for comment since the ad was removed.

The Solana Foundation, which was formed in 2020, was founded “with a mission to advance the adoption of decentralized technologies as a public good.” It received all of the Solana IP from Solana Labs at that time, and took on an initial focus of “expanding and developing the ecosystem of the Solana protocol.”

SOL is up more than 7% in the last 24 hours and is priced at $133. The sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap remains down nearly 25% in the last 30 days.

Edited by Andrew Hayward