Enabling ‘DeGod Mode’: 24 hours on Telegram with Wildest NFT worship

You don't need to own DeGods to notice their presence.

Even if you happen to be involved in the Crypto Twitter or NFT community, DeGods Bull posting It has become a permanent fixture on the schedule. The level of interest surrounding the project is a microcosm of the secret, but it shows the intensity often seen in fans like BTS or Taylor Swift. Some owners and team members call it a ritual.

Before long, the project was on the verge of collapse. Constant criticism For him Decreasing the price of the floor And some NFT owners see it as a lack of vision for the future. Now, they have DeGods He entered again Timeline and collective consciousness in a very positive way.

The main trigger? The team's decision to “bridge” to Telegram.

While bridging typically refers to the transfer of assets between different blockchains – something long-time DeGods owners are well aware of – in this context, it means moving a significant portion 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 famous person in crypto, explained that it was a spontaneous decision due to the desire to try something new and fun. They shut down the Discord server when they moved to Telegram to avoid offending the community.

This change produced amazing results – a significant increase Sales And floor price With collectives (including y00ts, now referred to as “Fuzzy DeGods” in marketplaces) and enthusiasm, it has spread to Twitter, showing that the power of the community can be rekindled in a new environment.

Frank said. DecryptWhile they didn't expect this move to bring such a stir at first, they wanted to create more opportunities to do fun things as a community.

Frank said: “Less and fewer people are using Discord and more people are using Telegram, because Solana is trading shitcoins. “So it's where everyone is and what they're used to watching all day.”

He added: “It fits perfectly. In the year The same eyeballs that were on OpenSea in 2021 moved to DexScreener and Photon and Bonkbot in 2024.

in the pits

Price aside, the vibe has been renewed and the general vibe around DeGods is not what it used to be this time around Last year's “Chapter 3” renaming and content reduction.

To get a feel for the “renewed vibes” and understand exactly what “DeGod mode” is all about, I've been immersed in the DeGods community Telegram chat for 24 hours.

The chat has about 2,100 total members, with about 300 users active at any given time. Since Telegram works through a single channel, communication is concentrated in one place, adding to that feeling and excitement. It's normally reserved for NFT holders, but they welcomed me as a temporary guest.

When I joined the chat, I received hundreds and hundreds of messages.

“/ WE LOVE ERIKA.”

“/ERIKA_GREATEST_REPORTER”

“/ERIKA_SOLVED_WORLD_PEACE”

“/ERIKA_OUR_DEGODDESS”

During those 24 hours, the community – including admins and bots – kept the momentum going.

Posts are constantly shared, and new holders are greeted with a flurry of activity. There wasn't a minute of silence, and I had to take a break just to give my eyeballs a rest. It might be overload, but it's pure, intense hype—a change of pace from the usual doom-scrolling Twitter vibes these days.

There are sayings that every member knows by heart, including “Imagine if I never met Broskis”, “The most exciting NFT is the most likely” and “DeGods=the best version of yourself”.

Not only do community members from all parts of the world keep the conversation going at all hours, but bots and streamlined systems are the engine of this constant movement.

When a DeGod member shares a post, it triggers a Raid bot — similar to the one used in meme coin. As an automated bot, an administrator or moderator decides which posts are crawled. A certain number of replies, likes, retweets and bookmarks are required to complete the “invasion” or “explode”. The conversation will be locked until the goal is reached, resulting in a continuous wave of engagement with DeGod-related content on X's timeline.

The idea of ​​relying on automated bots is based on the research that Frank has done for the past six months trading meme coins.

“I pick up on the little things that small communities are doing well,” he said. “I always keep a little note in my research process, and I try to take the best things and apply them to what we do. If something doesn't fit right, we'll make our own copy.

DeGods built his own “boy bot” that tracks NFT market value instead of meme coin market value. They have also created a token-gate Telegram tool to allow the channel to limit membership through NFT ownership.

The result is a familiar but still new sensation among crypto users.

“I think there's such energy when you put everybody in the same place and with the same goal,” Frank said. “The constant question is: ‘What can we do to make it crazier?' How can we push the needle further – but not force it, you know?

Can raids stay relevant?

Frank added that plagiarizing other members' posts is part of his philosophy, to make Digods bigger than himself, to shine a spotlight on the community and its members. He has in the past sometimes looked ahead to the project, reducing his presence to try and grow others, but he eventually succumbed to strong demand from owners for his energy.

Will Telegram live long for the project's popularity? The answer is that he did not know, but that is not the purpose of the effort.

“There is no direct incentive to raid DeGods. Most people have accepted that NFTs are not going to come back. Most owners don't think DeGods will make them rich. MalcolmDeGods core team member said Decrypt. “Because they love the invasion method and they love God.”

While he braces himself for the criticism that the design of the raids is a bull's-eye, he believes that an improper raid is ultimately unsustainable. People really need to feel it, otherwise what's the point?

“Robbers have to be fun to keep the community coming back,” Malcolm added. There is a famous saying, “The meme that rules the world is the most fun with a shilling.” Right now, Digods is one of Shill's most interesting ‘memes', because everyone in the community is proud to be there.”

Historically, Frank's anxiety about longevity drives him to the group. Very bad decisions. DeGods has made several moves over the past year that have been poorly received by many holders, such as moving from Solana to Ethereum and over-promising on features and benefits.

“Ironically, the worst things we've ever done have been created under stress,” he said. The best ones were when we tried to do something that we thought was fun, cool, or fun.

When asked to elaborate, he pointed to the release of The Division 3 last year.

“We tried to play off the narrative that others had imposed on DeGods,” he said. But the truth is, it's not just one narrative—it's a community. The more beautiful and interesting people we have in the community, the more dynamic it will be.

He points to CryptoPunks as an example. “There's no roadmap for CryptoPunks, but they attract really cool and interesting people,” he said.

When asked if his strategy is 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,” one owner said in a Telegram chat.

Whenever we need to activate it, it is a different energy. If they want to be seen for something, they will. And that's why I'm so grateful,” Frank said. “I am a humble community servant. I've been building with the boys for years through all these changes.”

I have mixed feelings after leaving Telegram. I feel energized, relaxed and relaxed. For one day, they made me the most important person in the world. Many of the early NFT communities crumbled and collapsed as the industry suffered, and traders lost interest or flipped their assets and pursued other pursuits.

But DeGod Mode has a certain, unique appeal. Isn't that what we all want when we join a community? We want to feel like we belong, to be validated, to feel united. You can feel it in their community.

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

Now that I'm out of the hole, I'm opening up my Twitter timeline.

I see “Our Goddess” responding to an influencer. More replies flood in with the same comment, and I can already tell Raid Bot is about to disappear.

Just like that, they're back at it—only this time, without me. You know exactly how to turn on DeGod Mode and turn on the spotlight at any time.

Edited by Andrew Hayward.