Solana Meme Coin Church Turns on Pastor After Scam Allegations Surface

Absurdist meme coin Smoking Rooster Fish (SCF), which developed from a Solana token into a faith with plans to construct a bodily church, has ousted its de facto chief amid a flurry of “scammer” allegations. With this, the remaining crew has retaken management of the mission’s web site and Telegram channel, and is at the moment preventing to get into the Twitter account.

Group and core crew members of the SCF token declare that Pastor Kelby took funds from by-product tasks with out notifying the remainder of the crew, obtained “church donations” immediately into his private pockets, and has launched quite a few “rug pulls.”

Pastor Kelby didn’t reply to Decrypt’s repeated requests for remark through Telegram or LinkedIn.

Smoking Rooster Fish is a meme coin that began with a bizarre photograph. However issues took a flip when contributors developed their very own ethical and philosophical legal guidelines, turning right into a “church” that worshiped “Lord Fishnu” and registered as a nonprofit group. Pastor Kelby led each day sermons the place he learn passages from his favourite self-help books.

Whereas there had been murmurings to not belief Kelby from the get go, every thing got here to boiling level when he shilled a mission throughout one of many church’s each day sermons.

An hour earlier than the each day sermon, the mission’s official Twitter account posted {that a} then-$2 million market cap meme coin known as BigTittyChicken (BTC) was the mission’s “little sister.”

In response to a core crew member, Kelby apparently said within the now-deleted Twitter Areas that he would host this mission all week—however then didn’t host them once more. Meraki Crypto, a BigTittyChicken crew member, additionally mentioned that this was to be a “long-term partnership,” however that Kelby didn’t hold his phrase.

The SCF crew claims that Kelby used his entry to the Twitter account and affiliation with the church to be paid for this promotion, with out consulting anybody else within the mission. Meraki mentioned that after they have been “scammed” by Kelby, they have been then contacted by “many different” tasks that had the identical expertise.

Pastor Kelby mentioned that he didn’t create the unique Pump.enjoyable token behind the meme faith, however was in contact with the deployer from the beginning. The unique creator held onto tokens that Kelby can be paid for his work on the mission.

Sadly, the founding father of SCF purportedly “went rogue,” mentioned Kelby, promoting all of the tokens and ghosting everybody. Regardless of having no tokens in his pockets, Kelby continued to push the mission, main each day Twitter Areas the place he pushed the gospel of the newly shaped faith.

“I figured that one thing would work out close to the top that I’d find yourself making a living too,” Pastor Kelby mentioned in August throughout an episode of Decrypt’s podcast, “What’s the Meta?”

A pockets handle supplied by a core crew member—who wished to stay nameless resulting from worry of retaliation from Kelby—in addition to the BigTittyChicken crew obtained 10 million of the BTC meme tokens earlier than the announcement, and offered this whole bag in three clips over the subsequent 4 hours.

“For BigTittyChicken, this was a catastrophe,” a BigTittyChicken Telegram admin advised Decrypt. “Our worth tanked, belief was shattered, and we needed to scramble to repair our status to maintain the mission alive.”

Pseudonymous SCF neighborhood crew lead Benji.wif claims to have despatched Kelby $9,200 in SCF tokens as fee for his work on the mission. In response to blockchain knowledge, the pockets immediately despatched these tokens to a different pockets, then later forwarded a bigger quantity to a 3rd pockets—the identical pockets that BigTittyChicken paid into.

“He used the principle account to ask for church donations which have been simply [sent to] his pockets,” Max Newton, co-founder of WallStreetBets and SCF neighborhood member, advised Decrypt.

This is the reason some supporters worry that Kelby, who claimed to have raised $130,000 to construct a bodily church, has been siphoning funds from his neighborhood whereas claiming it was for the church. Some consider that Kelby was additionally focusing on massive holders after sending out a Google Kind to traders with a collection of questions, together with what number of tokens they maintain.

As these occasions have been unfolding, a gaggle of neighborhood members shaped a Discord server to research Kelby. That is when the crew discovered proof that Kelby was might have been concerned in quite a few different earlier alleged “scams” and “rug pulls.” After he promoted BigTittyChicken on Twitter Areas, the group confronted him about his actions.

“You might be conceited, and so out of contact with actuality to suppose {that a} faith I MADE UP AND WROTE THE CHICKENMANDMENTS FOR, about an irl church THATS IN MY NAME AND ACTUALLY EXISTS, could be ran or constructed with out me there,” Kelby ranted on Twitter.

Following this, Kelby held the official Twitter account to a $100,000 ransom, in line with Twitter DMs seen by Decrypt.

The crew refused to pay this payment, and is at the moment working with Twitter to regain entry. In these screenshots, Kelby additionally claims to personal the trademark to Church of the Smoking Rooster Fish, suggesting that any neighborhood takeover would want to divert from that branding.

Fearing that the faith he’d helped type was turning its again on him, Kelby created a brand new token, referring to it as “the brand new testomony,” and claimed that he would airdrop tokens to all previous SCF holders—earlier than deciding towards it simply half-hour later and burning the tokens as an alternative.

“It is like my youngster was taken away or some shit, and it is maddening,” Kelby mentioned in the identical lengthy Twitter publish. “Know what fuck it ima simply relaunch the shit with out YOU.”

His new coin shot as much as a $2.6 million market cap in an hour earlier than dropping 97% quickly after. Somebody then claimed to have reported Kelby to the SEC following this incident.

After which Kelby’s Twitter account disappeared. It’s unclear if he was banned or deleted his account, however the account resurfaced two days later with a reworked bio stating he “was as soon as the Pastor for the Church of the Smoking Rooster Fish.” He instantly started shilling new low market cap tokens, particularly Leaned Out Chilly Willy.

“He’s not a illustration of the church, and the neighborhood and message are approach larger than anybody individual,” Benji.wif advised Decrypt, including that he and fellow crew member Max Newton will oversee the church to any extent further.

Whereas Pastor Kelby was the face of the church to many individuals, Benji claims that he was in the end the one operating issues behind the scenes, dealing with token listings and advertising and marketing wants. He mentioned that he has been “primarily elected” chief of the neighborhood takeover.

“However the focus is extra on decentralization shifting ahead,” Benji.wif defined, “though we do nonetheless want a voice and somebody to symbolize [us].”

Edited by Andrew Hayward and Stacy Elliott.