The team behind blockchain network Solana has deleted a controversial advertisement posted on its X account after immense backlash over political messaging around gender identity.

The more than two-and-a-half-minute ad for the Solana Accelerate conference posted on March 17 with the caption “America is back. Time to Accelerate” depicted a man as “America” in a therapy session who said he was having thoughts “about innovation” such as crypto.

The therapist responds he should do “something more productive, like coming up with a new gender” and later says the man should “focus on pronouns.”

As the conversation meanders on, the man snaps and launches into a monologue amid swelling patriotic music, saying he wants to “build onchain and reclaim my place as the beacon of innovation” and wants “to invent technologies, not genders” in an apparent dig at progressive values.

Before its deletion, the ad was viewed over 1.2 million times and racked up over 1,300 comments and 1,400 reposts, a majority of which derided it for its handling of gender identity and for making light of a highly divisive political issue.

“They rolled it back because it hurt their business, not because they thought it was wrong,” Cinneamhain Ventures partner Adam Cochran wrote to X on March 18.

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

Solana has not stated why it deleted the ad. The Solana Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sean O’Connor, operating chief at Web3 infrastructure firm Blocknative, wrote on X, “This is so fucking tone deaf.”

“At a time when trans people are getting denied passports and being erased by the government… this is the ad you put out?” he added. 

On his first day back in the White House, President Donald Trump revoked Joe Biden’s executive orders aimed at preventing discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation. 

He also signed an order recognizing only two sexes — male and female — and scrapped the option for Americans to choose “X” as a gender on passports.

DoubleZero operating chief David McIntyre called Solana’s ad “horrendous” and questioned why Solana didn’t “keep the message positive instead of dunking on people and making light of serious cultural issues.”

Nicolas Pennie, the co-founder of the Solana development platform Helius, said on X that “virtue signaling will always be cringe regardless of political ideology.”

Others who initially backed the ad have also pulled their support amid the backlash.

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Multicoin Capital co-founder Tushar Jain wrote on X that he deleted his initial post praising the ad “after some reflection.” 

He previously called the ad “bold and risky” and said having former Vice President Kamala Harris play the role of therapist was the “only thing that could have made it better.”

In his retraction statement, Jain said it would have been more effective to “focus on deeper culture war issues like the failings of the oppressor-oppressed world view, not surface culture war issues like pronouns,” and the ad could have sent a message “without alienating a portion of the audience.”

X Hall of Flame: Solana ‘will be a trillion-dollar asset’ — Mert Mumtaz 

US government cost-cutting csar Elon Musk claims to have found at least 14 “magic money computers” in the federal government with the ability to send money from nothing.

Musk said the computers, which exist in several federal departments, including the Treasury, Defense and Health and Human Services departments, can essentially issue payments and send money from nothing.

“You may think that the government computers all talk to each other, they’re synchronized, they add up what funds are going where, and it’s coherent and that the numbers you’re presented as a senator are the real numbers,” Musk said in a March 17 episode of Senator Ted Cruz’s podcast Verdict with Ted Cruz.

An absolute bombshell from @elonmusk on the latest episode of Verdict.

He reveals there are 14 magic money computers in the federal government that send money out of nothing.

Don’t miss the latest episode of Verdict wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe now!… pic.twitter.com/1tnJmJtiw9

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 17, 2025

However, Musk said this isn’t the case. 

“They’re not totally wrong, but they’re probably off by 5% or 10% in some cases. So I call it ‘magic money computer’ — any computer that can make money out of thin air. That’s magic money.”

Jameson Lopp, the chief security officer at Bitcoin (BTC) custody company Casa, said in the video comments that “Bitcoin fixes this.” 

Bitcoin advocates have long touted the cryptocurrency’s ability to hedge against currency devaluation, as Bitcoin’s supply is capped at 21 million coins, while fiat supply can increase with more “printing.” 

Source: Jameson Lopp

Related: DOGE proposes slashing Internal Revenue Service staff by 20%

Musk says his latest DOGE efforts have also uncovered that US government departments have more media, software subscriptions, and credit cards than they do people working there — in some cases, up to double. 

However, he thinks 80% of cases are waste and incompetence rather than a malicious scheme because, in some instances, companies are being sent money by mistake. Then nobody from the government is asking for the money back. 

“We saw a lot of payments going out of Treasury that had no payment code and no explanation for the payment, and then we’re trying to figure out what that payment is,” Musk said. 

“Then we see that, okay, that contract was supposed to be shut off, but someone forgot to shut off that contract, and so the company kept getting money. Now, is that waste or fraud?”

Musk’s other business ventures have suffered due to his DOGE work. Tesla facilities around the US have been vandalized as part of a broader “Take down Tesla” movement protesting DOGE’s cost-cutting measures. 

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Bitcoin’s nearly $12 billion open interest shakeout earlier this month might be just the catalyst needed for the asset to regain its upward momentum, according to a crypto analyst.

“This can be considered as a natural market reset, an essential phase for sustaining a bullish continuation,” CryptoQuant contributor DarkFost said in a March 17 markets report.

“Looking at historical trends, each past deleveraging like this has provided good opportunities for the short to medium term,” the analyst said.

CoinGlass data shows that on Feb. 20, Bitcoin’s (BTC) open interest (OI) — a metric tracking the total number of unsettled Bitcoin derivative contracts such as options and futures — stood at $61.42 billion before dropping 19% to $49.71 billion by March 4. 

Bitcoin’s open interest is sitting at $49.02 billion at the time of publication. Source: CoinGlass

It came amid volatile price swings due to uncertainty over US President Donald Trump’s imposed tariffs and the future of US interest rates.

“Following the recent panic triggered by political instability linked to Trump’s decisions, we witnessed a massive liquidation of leveraged positions on Bitcoin,” DarkFost said.

Bitcoin’s price fell below two crucial price levels during the two-week period, bringing it closer to the levels seen in the days after Trump’s election win in November.

Feb. 25 saw Bitcoin’s price retrace below $90,000, and just two days later, on Feb. 27, Bitcoin dropped below $80,000 for the first time since November. It’s now trading at $83,400, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Bitcoin is down 14.58% over the past 30 days. Source: CoinMarketCap

Bitget chief analyst Ryan Lee recently told Cointelegraph that with Bitcoin hovering in the low $80,000s, its price and OI could see more volatility if the March 19 Federal Open Market Committee meeting delivers any surprises.

“The market largely expects the Fed to hold rates steady, but any unexpected hawkish signals could put pressure on Bitcoin and other risk assets,” he added. 

Related: Bitcoin experiencing ‘shakeout,’ not end of 4-year cycle: Analysts

Markets are currently pricing in a 99% chance that the Fed will keep interest rates steady, according to the latest estimates of the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.

At the time of publication, Bitcoin OI is sitting at $49.02 billion, representing an approximate 6.5% increase over the past five days.

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This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.