24 Hours in Telegram With the Wildest NFT Cult

Even if you’re just casually involved in Crypto Twitter or the NFT community, DeGods bullposting has become a constant fixture on the timeline. The level of passion surrounding the project mirrors the intensity often seen in fandoms like BTS or Taylor Swift, albeit within the microcosm of crypto. Some holders and team members call it a cult.

Not long ago, the project was facing constant criticism for its decline in floor price and what some NFT holders saw as a lack of vision for the future. Now, DeGods have reentered the timeline and collective consciousness in a much more positive way.

The main catalyst? The team’s decision to “bridge” to Telegram.

While bridging typically refers to transferring assets between different blockchains—something that longtime DeGods holders know well—in this context, it means moving a significant part of the community’s activity to the Telegram platform. The idea was to engage with their audience in a space where attention and interaction naturally thrive.

Rohun “Frank DeGods” Vora, the founder of DeGods and a prominent figure in crypto, described it as a spontaneous decision driven by the desire to try something new and fun. In an effort to not dilute the community, they closed the Discord server when moving to Telegram.

This shift yielded surprising results—a marked increase in sales and floor price across collections (including y00ts, now called “Fuzzy DeGods” on marketplaces), and enthusiasm that even extended out to Twitter, demonstrating that the community’s energy could be reignited in a new environment.

Frank told Decrypt that while they didn’t initially expect this move to spark such a revival, they just wanted to create more opportunities to do interesting things as a community.

“Less and less people are using Discord and more people are using Telegram, because they’re trading Solana shitcoins,” Frank explained. “So it’s where everyone already is and what they’re already used to looking at all day.”

“And it’s fitting in perfectly,” he added. “The same eyeballs that were on OpenSea in 2021 have now moved to DexScreener and Photon and Bonkbot in 2024.”

In the trenches

Price aside, the vibes have been revitalized and the overall sentiment around DeGods is not what it was during last year’s “Season 3” rebranding and content drop.

To get a feel for the “rejuvenated vibes” and truly understand what “DeGod mode” is all about, I spent 24 hours immersed in the DeGods community Telegram chat.

The chat has about 2,100 total members, with around 300 users active at any given moment. Since Telegram operates through a single channel, communication is concentrated in one space, amplifying the hype and excitement. It’s typically exclusive for NFT holders, but they welcomed me in as a temporary guest.

When I joined the chat, I was greeted by hundreds and hundreds of messages.

“/WE LOVE ERIKA”

“/ERIKA_GREATEST_REPORTER”

“/ERIKA_SOLVED_WORLD_PEACE”

“/ERIKA_OUR_DEGODDESS”

During those 24 hours, the community—admins and bots included—kept the momentum going nonstop.

Posts were shared continuously, and new holders were welcomed in a flurry of activity. There was never a moment of silence, and I had to take breaks just to give my eyeballs a rest. It can be overload, but it’s pure, concentrated hype—a change of pace from the usual doom-scrolling vibes of Twitter these days.

There are catchphrases that each member knows by heart, including “Imagine if I never met the broskis,” “The most entertaining NFT is the most likely,” and “DeGods = best version of yourself.”

Not only are community members from all different parts of the globe keeping the chat going at all hours, but the bots and streamlined system are the engine behind this constant activity.

When a DeGod member shares a post, a Raid bot—similar to those used in the meme coin trenches—triggers. While it is an automated bot, an admin or moderator decides which specific posts get raided. To complete the “raid” or make it “explode,” a certain number of replies, likes, retweets, and bookmarks are required. The chat locks until the goal is reached, resulting in an ongoing wave of engagement with DeGod-related content across the X timeline.

The idea of relying on automated bots is based on Frank’s research from the past six months trading meme coins.

“I picked up on little things that little communities are doing well,” he said. “I’ve always kind of just kept a little note in my research process, and I try to take the stuff that’s the best and apply it to what we’re doing. If there’s something that doesn’t fit exactly, then we kind of just make our own version of it.”

DeGods made its own version of a “buy bot” that would track NFT market cap instead of meme coin market cap. They also created token-gated Telegram tooling to enable the channel to restrict membership by NFT ownership.

The result is something that may be familiar to crypto users, but still new in feel.

“I think there’s such an energy when you put everybody together in the same place and with the same goals,” Frank said. “The question that keeps popping up is, like: ‘What can we do to make it even crazier? How can we push the needle even more—but not force it, you know?”

Can raids stay relevant?

Frank added that raiding other member’s posts also ties into the philosophy to make DeGods bigger than himself, to shine the spotlight on the community and its members. He’s been a reluctant face of the project at times in the past, minimizing his presence to try and boost others, but ultimately ceding to overwhelming demand from holders for his energy.

Will the Telegram have longevity for the project’s popularity? The answer is he doesn’t know, but it’s also not the point of the endeavor.

“There is no direct incentive to raid for DeGods. Most people have accepted that NFTs won’t make a comeback. The majority of holders don’t think DeGods will make them rich,” Malcolm, a core team member of DeGods, told Decrypt. “They raid because they love the craft of raiding, and they love DeGods.”

While the design of the raids lends itself to criticism that the bullposting is manufactured, he believes that inauthentic raids ultimately wouldn’t be sustainable. People need to really feel it, otherwise what’s the point?

“Raids must be fun in order for the community to keep coming back,” Malcolm added. “There is a popular saying, ‘The meme that takes over the world is the one that’s most fun to shill.’ Right now, DeGods is one of the most fun ‘memes’ to shill, because everyone in the community is proud to be there.”

Frank explains that historically, stress about longevity has led to his team’s worst decisions. DeGods made a number of moves over the last year-plus that were poorly received by many holders, such as bridging away from Solana towards Ethereum and overpromising on features and benefits.

“Ironically, the worst things we ever made were created under stress,” he said. “The best were when we were just trying to do things we thought were interesting, cool, or fun.”

When asked to elaborate, he pointed to last year’s divisive Season 3 rollout.

“We tried to play into narratives that others imposed on DeGods,” he said. “But the truth is, it’s not just one narrative—it’s a community. The more cool and interesting people we have in the community, the more dynamic it becomes.”

He points to CryptoPunks as an example. “There’s no roadmap for CryptoPunks, but they attract people who are authentically cool and interesting,” he said. “That’s what brings more of those kinds of people into the community.”

Asked if his strategy is simply to adapt to what’s happening and adjust along the way, Frank replied, “My strategy is ‘DeGod Mode.’”

What is ‘DeGod Mode?’ It’s different for everyone. ”It’s a lifestyle, it’s a feeling,” a holder said in the Telegram chat.

“It’s a different kind of energy, whenever we need to activate it. If you need them to show up for something, they will. And that’s the thing I’m most grateful for,” Frank said. “I’m just a humble community servant. I’ve been building with the guys for so many years through all these changes.”

After leaving the Telegram, I’m hit with a mix of emotions. I feel energized, entertained, and amused. For a day, they made me feel like the most important person in the world. Many of the early NFT communities have fractured and fallen apart as the industry has suffered, and as traders lose interest or flip their assets and chase other thrills.

But DeGod Mode has a certain, special allure. Isn’t that what we all seek when joining a community? We want to feel like we belong, to be affirmed, to feel unified. You can feel that within their community.

One thing’s clear: they know how to adapt to the current meta, have fun, and make it their own.

Now that I’m out of the trenches, I open my Twitter timeline.

“Our DeGoddess,” I see a DeGod reply to an influencer. More replies flood in with the same comment, and I can already tell the Raid Bot is about to go off.

Just like that, they’re back at it—only this time, without me. They really know how to turn on DeGod Mode and shine the spotlight on whoever’s time it is at the moment.

Edited by Andrew Hayward