Absurdist meme coin Smoking Hen 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 staff has retaken management of the undertaking’s web site and Telegram channel, and is at present combating to get into the Twitter account.
Group and core staff members of the SCF token declare that Pastor Kelby took funds from spinoff tasks with out notifying the remainder of the staff, acquired “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 Hen Fish is a meme coin that began with a bizarre picture. 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 every 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, all the pieces got here to boiling level when he shilled a undertaking throughout one of many church’s every day sermons.
An hour earlier than the every day sermon, the undertaking’s official Twitter account posted {that a} then-$2 million market cap meme coin known as BigTittyChicken (BTC) was the undertaking’s “little sister.”
In line with a core staff member, Kelby apparently said within the now-deleted Twitter Areas that he would host this undertaking all week—however then didn’t host them once more. Meraki Crypto, a BigTittyChicken staff member, additionally stated that this was to be a “long-term partnership,” however that Kelby didn’t preserve his phrase.
The SCF staff 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 undertaking. Meraki stated that after they had been “scammed” by Kelby, they had been then contacted by “many different” tasks that had the identical expertise.
in 30 mintes we’re going to go on an journey.
I need to see 50 NEW FACES in church tonight.
With an ath of 200 Individuals within the area directly.
These are the metrics I fear about.
As we speak we go over 1 of the 21 irrefutable legislation of management by @JohnCMaxwell
Then we’ll learn… pic.twitter.com/fgwOoUuNSB
— Church of the Smoking Hen Fish (@ChurchOfTheSCF) September 9, 2024
Pastor Kelby stated 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 undertaking.
Sadly, the founding father of SCF purportedly “went rogue,” stated Kelby, promoting all of the tokens and ghosting everybody. Regardless of having no tokens in his pockets, Kelby continued to push the undertaking, main every 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 might find yourself getting cash too,” Pastor Kelby stated in August throughout an episode of Decrypt’s podcast, “What’s the Meta?”
A pockets tackle supplied by a core staff member—who wished to stay nameless as a result of worry of retaliation from Kelby—in addition to the BigTittyChicken staff acquired 10 million of the BTC meme tokens earlier than the announcement, and bought this complete bag in three clips over the subsequent 4 hours.
“For BigTittyChicken, this was a catastrophe,” a BigTittyChicken Telegram admin informed Decrypt. “Our worth tanked, belief was shattered, and we needed to scramble to repair our fame to maintain the undertaking alive.”
Pseudonymous SCF neighborhood staff lead Benji.wif claims to have despatched Kelby $9,200 in SCF tokens as cost for his work on the undertaking. In line with 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 had been simply [sent to] his pockets,” Max Newton, co-founder of WallStreetBets and SCF neighborhood member, informed Decrypt.
This pockets went on to dump a number of occasions in a row earlier than sending out to a bunch of different wallets and dumping it there in an try to cover his actions. https://t.co/5DFoMokmoy
— Meraki Crypto (@merakicrypto_) September 10, 2024
That is why 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 concentrating on huge 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 had been unfolding, a bunch of neighborhood members shaped a Discord server to analyze Kelby. That is when the staff discovered proof that Kelby was may 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 smug, and so out of contact with actuality to assume {that a} faith I MADE UP AND WROTE THE CHICKENMANDMENTS FOR, about an irl church THATS IN MY NAME AND ACTUALLY EXISTS, will be ran or constructed with out me there,” Kelby ranted on Twitter.
Yea you are proper, i’ve gone completely bonkers.
To assume that these individuals, who i carried for two months, who did little besides make tweets and bitch and complain, would select to have me step down vs handle me is wild as fuck.
I hope you all go bankrupt and get seen for…
— Kelby (@PastorKelby) September 16, 2024
Following this, Kelby held the official Twitter account to a $100,000 ransom, in keeping with Twitter DMs seen by Decrypt.
The staff refused to pay this payment, and is at present working with Twitter to regain entry. In these screenshots, Kelby additionally claims to personal the trademark to Church of the Smoking Hen Fish, suggesting that any neighborhood takeover would wish to divert from that branding.
Fearing that the faith he’d helped kind 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 outdated SCF holders—earlier than deciding towards it simply half-hour later and burning the tokens as a substitute.
“It is like my baby was taken away or some shit, and it is maddening,” Kelby stated 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.
Life comes at you quick @russuddin pic.twitter.com/U6t7EG9kqm
— Jason A. Williams (@GoingParabolic) September 16, 2024
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 Hen Fish.” He instantly started shilling new low market cap tokens, particularly Leaned Out Chilly Willy.
“He isn’t a illustration of the church, and the neighborhood and message are approach greater than anybody particular person,” Benji.wif informed Decrypt, including that he and fellow staff 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 working issues behind the scenes, dealing with token listings and advertising and marketing wants. He stated that he has been “basically elected” chief of the neighborhood takeover.
“However the focus is extra on decentralization transferring ahead,” Benji.wif defined, “though we do nonetheless want a voice and somebody to characterize [us].”
Edited by Andrew Hayward and Stacy Elliott.