Solana CEO Expresses Regret Over Controversial ‘America Is Back’ Ad
Solana’s co-founder and CEO Anatoly Yakovenko has finally responded to the recent “America is Back—Time to Accelerate” advertisement that garnered intense criticism from the community.
He expressed regret over the ad, admitting that it was “mean” and “bad” and targeted marginalized groups.
“The ad was bad, and it’s still gnawing at my soul,” he wrote to his 560K followers on X.
“I am ashamed I downplayed it instead of just calling it what it is – mean and punching down on a marginalized group.”
As reported earlier, the ad posted on March 17, was deleted 9 hours after it reached 1.4 million views from the community. Members from the industry slammed the ad, calling it “cringe,” “toxic,” and “offensive.”
At the time, Yakovenko himself took to X, complaining that the previous “Maren ad was better” than the current one.
Solana Will Stay Out of Culture Wars: CEO
Following the removal of the ad after community criticisms, Yakovenko praised the ecosystem developers and artists for immediately calling out the “mess.”
“I am grateful for the ecosystem devs and artists that immediately called it what it is both publicly and privately,” he wrote. “You are the only silver lining to this whole mess.”
Further, the CEO has promised his followers that Solana Foundation would focus solely on its mission towards decentralization.
“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,” he added.
Yakovenko’s Reflection Meets Positive Responses
Following Solana CEO’s responses to the controversial ad, several prominent investors and entrepreneurs came with positive responses.
Sam Lessin, an early investor in the Venmo mobile payment app, replied to Solana co-founder’s response, “I love you owning this directly.”
Other industry players lauded his direct apology, calling it “real leadership.”
“Respect you saying this with no ego, that is real leadership brother. We can move on and accelerate together,” wrote one user. Another developer noted that it takes real courage “to take accountability and publicly own up to a mistake.”
Though the CEO took to X to express his stance on the ad, the Solana Foundation hasn’t issued any public statement on the issue since the deletion of the ad on Monday.
Meanwhile, SOL has been up over 7% in the past 24 hours, per CoinMarketCap data. The crypto is priced at $133.30 at press time. The spike is also attributed to the recent launch of the first Solana exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US, issued by Volatility Shares.