{"id":"frank-degods","hidden":false,"ipfs":"QmYxkSH5noHabBKGCnEqfj6XMNaLdZUaanEyNf5vHRwJeU","language":"en","transactionHash":"0xdcab68830d770c03b8c2760a2b4a6fb7dc4c20487b89cdaaeb5bde1fa8e0404b","created":"2023-02-20T12:41:34.401Z","updated":"2025-05-13T16:55:19.061Z","title":"Frank DeGods","summary":"Frank DeGods, real name Rohun Vora, is a former UCLA film student-turned-entrepreneur who founded the NFT projects DeGods and y00ts.","content":"**Frank** [**DeGods**](https://iq.wiki/wiki/degods) is the online alias of Rohun Vora, a non-fungible token ([NFT](https://iq.wiki/wiki/non-fungible-token-nft)) entrepreneur and founder of the [DeGods](https://iq.wiki/wiki/degods) and y00ts NFT projects.[\\[4\\]](#cite-id-8wuqk1z0swx)​[\\[3\\]](#cite-id-btvz2qon4pj)​[\\[11\\]](#cite-id-3b07qw8zs7r) Vora served as CEO of [DeGods](https://iq.wiki/wiki/degods) until stepping down from the role on May 12, 2025.[\\[13\\]](#cite-id-HK7DL0b99L)​[\\[14\\]](#cite-id-t7uUeJxB5I)​\n\n[YOUTUBE@VID](LESWb3AHcgQ)\n\n## Early Life\n\nAccording to the founder, the pseudonym “Frank” was inspired by the musician Frank Ocean. The LA-based NFT founder was exposed to movie sets as early as 15, which inspired his film studies, but he dropped out of UCLA to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams.[\\[11\\]](#cite-id-3b07qw8zs7r)​\n\nOne of Frank’s earliest business pursuits was NutAds, which he founded in May 2018 as a creative agency focused on building brands for early-stage startups. He later founded Duffl in 2019, a company that used e-scooters to deliver groceries to customers.[\\[12\\]](#cite-id-fb0i39a7eun)​\n\nHe was later accepted to the startup fund and program Y Combinator, where he was able to raise $1.3 million. Soon after, and after briefly studying software engineering at General Assembly, he joined a coding bootcamp. He then landed a job at MainStreet, a software development company, where he worked as a one-person marketing team while MainStreet raised funding at a $500-million valuation.[\\[2\\]](#cite-id-zvlv6gn677l)​[\\[3\\]](#cite-id-btvz2qon4pj)​\n\n​[DeGods](https://iq.wiki/wiki/degods) founder Frank [DeGods](https://iq.wiki/wiki/degods) stayed anonymous throughout [DeGods](https://iq.wiki/wiki/degods)' development but revealed his identity via Twitter on November 29,\n2022, disclosing that he is Rohun Vora.[\\[4\\]](#cite-id-8wuqk1z0swx)​\n\n## Career\n\n### DeGods\n\nFrank [DeGods](https://iq.wiki/wiki/degods) founded [DeGods](https://iq.wiki/wiki/degods) in March 2021 as a [Solana](https://iq.wiki/wiki/solana)-based deflationary [NFT](https://iq.wiki/wiki/non-fungible-token-nft) collection consisting of 10,000 colorful gods. [Staking](https://iq.wiki/wiki/staking) for [DeGods](https://iq.wiki/wiki/degods) went live in January 2022, with more than half of its supply staked within the first day.[\\[1\\]](#cite-id-0fubl747g416)​\n\n### Y00ts\n\nY00ts, originally called Duppies, is an [NFT](https://iq.wiki/wiki/non-fungible-token-nft) collection from the [DeGods](https://iq.wiki/wiki/degods) team that went live on September 6,\n2022\\. It consists of 15,000 NFTs that allow users to make their own PFPs, and the collection revolves around a sheep avatar with layers of metadata that give each NFT its unique characteristic.[\\[5\\]](#cite-id-ngb8e79850o)​[\\[6\\]](#cite-id-tpdru5rkbx)​\n\nAccording to the y00ts paper,\n\n> “Each collection would have its own ⓨ registry, where it’s easy to track who’s approved to be using the NFT’s IP. This allows projects to approve & reject usage requests at Web3 speed.”\n\nTo mint a y00ts NFT, interested individuals had to apply for a scholarship to get on the y00tlist – the y00ts version of a presale list.[\\[7\\]](#cite-id-cqmpuvpei1i)​[\\[8\\]](#cite-id-tdid3gla78h)​\n\n![image](https://ipfs.everipedia.org/ipfs/QmdmBTss6HqBbxDXAiiXehJbZL8WdyESzWzy8U88fzRZ2U \"image\")\n\n#### Polygon Grant\n\nIn January 2023, Frank [DeGods](https://iq.wiki/wiki/degods) announced that DeLabs — the startup behind [DeGods](https://iq.wiki/wiki/degods) — received a $3 million non-equity grant from [Polygon](https://iq.wiki/wiki/polygon) to expand the team and scale an upcoming incubator project. He mentioned that there were other chains that had offered more money than the [Polygon](https://iq.wiki/wiki/polygon) team, but he chose [Polygon](https://iq.wiki/wiki/polygon) as it was the best direction for the y00ts project overall.[\\[9\\]](#cite-id-n6axg52sac7)​\n\nFrank also stated that the company would expand its business with growing teams including business development, graphic design, content creation, and event coordination personnel. The revelation of the investment came a week after the [DeGods](https://iq.wiki/wiki/degods) team announced its plans to shift [blockchains](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain).[\\[9\\]](#cite-id-n6axg52sac7)​[\\[10\\]](#cite-id-wsaumkeqb7) Later, after Dust Labs decided to move y00ts away from [Polygon](https://iq.wiki/wiki/polygon) and onto [Ethereum](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ethereum), it returned the $3 million grant to [Polygon](https://iq.wiki/wiki/polygon).[\\[15\\]](#cite-id-2hm4g20qzx)​\n\n### Frank DeGods Steps Down as CEO\n\nOn May 12, 2025, Rohun Vora, popularly known as Frank [DeGods](https://iq.wiki/wiki/degods), announced his departure from the [DeGods](https://iq.wiki/wiki/degods) project and named those who would take over.[\\[13\\]](#cite-id-HK7DL0b99L)​\n\n> \"today is my last day as ceo of degods.\n> my chapter is closing, but the story isn't over.  &  will be taking over.\" - he tweeted[\\[14\\]](#cite-id-t7uUeJxB5I)\n\nHe did not explain in detail why he was leaving but suggested that a focus on the “Frank [DeGods](https://iq.wiki/wiki/degods)” brand may have been holding the project back. He also said that he felt “the hate was overdone” at times. “For the record: I’m not ‘on the run,’” he added. “There are no investigations, because I have never done anything illegal.”[\\[13\\]](#cite-id-HK7DL0b99L)​\n\nReporting in 2024 and 2025 linked Vora to a loose group of Los Angeles-based crypto influencers sometimes referred to as the “LA Vape Cabal,” and described community criticism around the LIBRA token and other memecoin launches associated with that circle.[\\[13\\]](#cite-id-HK7DL0b99L) In response to these allegations, he publicly denied engaging in insider trading or any illegal activity, characterizing some of his critics as trying to protect the broader crypto industry.[\\[13\\]](#cite-id-HK7DL0b99L) [The Block](https://iq.wiki/wiki/the-block) summarized his more than three-year tenure leading [DeGods](https://iq.wiki/wiki/degods) and y00ts as a period that combined experimentation and innovation around NFTs with a series of public disputes and controversies within the community.[\\[15\\]](#cite-id-2hm4g20qzx)​\n\n![image](https://ipfs.everipedia.org/ipfs/QmPUagFAFid5AWXBopCrNMZ3A1bpZDe7wHmWh8LPtyn4my \"image\")\n","recentActivity":null,"operator":{"id":"0x1E23b34d3106F0C1c74D17f2Cd0F65cdb039b138"},"categories":[{"id":"people","title":"People in crypto"}],"tags":[{"id":"Founder"}],"images":[{"id":"QmchpGgX9KchVVPgcAp9fsRUrSxBZxWfPNEcGBsN8FKvjK","type":"image/jpeg, image/png"}],"media":[{"name":"LESWb3AHcgQ","id":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LESWb3AHcgQ","size":"0","type":null,"source":"YOUTUBE"},{"name":"image","id":"QmPUagFAFid5AWXBopCrNMZ3A1bpZDe7wHmWh8LPtyn4my","size":"0.06","type":"GALLERY","source":"IPFS_IMG"},{"name":"image","id":"QmdmBTss6HqBbxDXAiiXehJbZL8WdyESzWzy8U88fzRZ2U","size":"0.08","type":"GALLERY","source":"IPFS_IMG"}],"linkedWikis":{"founders":[],"blockchains":[]},"events":[{"title":"Frank DeGods founds DeGods NFT project","date":"2021-03-01","type":"DEFAULT","description":"Frank DeGods founds the DeGods NFT 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