The Solana Foundation nixed an ad widely criticized for being anti-queer late Monday, nearly nine hours after seemingly invoking the culture wars as a mechanism to boost conference attendance.

The now-deleted spot imagines «America» in therapy. A human embodiment of the nation desperately wants to think big – about tech, crypto, space travel. But he can’t: his therapist wants him to «focus on pronouns» and on «coming up with new genders.»

«America, numbers are non-binary,» the therapist insists after chiding his «rational thinking syndrome.» America eventually snaps and yells out, «I want to invent technologies, not genders.

That the Solana Foundation – a Swiss nonprofit whose mission is to evangelize the Solana blockchain – would call upon right-wing talking points to promote its first U.S. conference sparked immediate controversy. Some influential voices within Solanaland called it pandering; others, offensive.

It’s also a reversal for an organization that previously called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) part of its «core values» and insisted attendees of its flagship event show respect to others regardless of gender.

Just weeks before President Donald Trump retook the White House in part on an anti-trans campaign, the foundation held a conference in Singapore. The event’s code of conduct prohibited «deliberate verbal or physical intimidation» based on «gender,» «gender identity and expression,» or other traits often lumped in with DEI. It threatened infractors with ejection and a ban from attending future events.

«The Solana Foundation is committed to the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect,» the Code of conduct read.

It’s not clear whether the Solana Foundation’s ad strategy also portends a shift in its «core values.» CoinDesk could not immediately locate the code of conduct for the upcoming event. A representative for the Solana Foundation did not return a request for comment.

Regardless, the ad threatened to thrust crypto deeper into partisan politics than many in the industry are comfortable with.

The crypto industry’s embrace of President Trump had previously been an exercise of single-issue alignment: Trump promised to embrace crypto, and the industry’s high-rollers hugged him back. The arrangement has left room for proponents to work alongside Democrats too, and many have.

That bargain may begin to fall apart if crypto loses its ostensibly bipartisan sheen.

The main organizations supporting the Arbitrum blockchain, Offchain Labs and the Arbitrum Foundation, unveiled a new program designed to kick-start early-stage projects in the ecosystem.

The new program, «Onchain Labs,» is designed to provide go-to-market support to «experimental and volatile» projects, according to a blog post from Offchain Labs, Arbitrum’s main developer.

“Through Onchain Labs, we’re dedicating resources to support developers looking to rapidly expand the application layer by ideating with them from the ground floor to bring the best user experiences to Arbitrum,” the blog post said. “As we do with many Arbitrum teams, we’ll provide product and [go-to-market] support to these early-stage projects, collaborating closely to help their applications thrive on Arbitrum.”

Arbitrum Foundation is a non-profit that stewards Arbitrum ecosystem governance. Offchain Labs, which created the blockchain in 2021, focuses on developer tooling and core network infrastructure.

Offchain Labs is pitching its new initiative as a way to spur greater activity and interest in the wider Arbitrum ecosystem. According to the blog post from the company, the first Onchain Labs projects will soon emerge from stealth. Offchain Labs said the only projects supported by its new program will be those that explicitly «commit to fair and equitable launches» — presumably meaning they avoid token launches and other mechanics that preference insiders.

Offchain Labs stated in its blog post that the selection criteria are meant to avoid «extractive ecosystems» and «zero-sum games.» Tandem, Offchain Labs’ venture capital arm, «may or may not purchase associated tokens in public markets,» the company added.

Arbitrum is a layer-2 optimistic rollup network on Ethereum. Like other rollups, the chain is designed to process transactions faster and more cheaply than the main Ethereum blockchain. Several new blockchains are built on Arbitrum’s technical framework, forming a network of interconnected blockchains called Arbitrum ‘Orbit.’

Arbitrum is currently the largest layer-2 network on Ethereum, with roughly $12.2 billion on its primary ‘Arbitrum One’ chain, according to L2beat.

Read more: Arbitrum Deepens Ties with South Korea’s Lotte Group

Crypto exchange Gemini has appointed a new chief financial officer as it positions itself for a potential initial public offering.

The company’s latest hire, Dan Chen, who previously served as vice president of capital markets at Affirm, announced the move in a social media post.

«Crypto is the most dynamic sector in finance and Gemini is at the forefront of this revolution — making it simple and secure to engage on the digital asset frontier,» Chen wrote in the post.

Chen will work alongside Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss to help scale the business. The timing of the hire aligns with Gemini’s reported ambitions for an IPO, which would provide greater access to capital while subjecting the company to the transparency requirements of public markets.

Read more: Billionaire Winklevoss Twins-Backed Gemini Confidentially Filed for a U.S IPO: Bloomberg

If Gemini moves forward with the public listing process, it will be part of a small but growing number of crypto-native companies considering an IPO in the U.S. stock exchanges, including Kraken, Circle, Bullish (parent company of CoinDesk) and Blockchain.com

Gemini has not formally confirmed its IPO plans, but the appointment of a CFO with extensive experience in financial strategy suggests that preparations may be underway.

Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.