Singapore — On Saturday (Feb 5) Instagram influencer Irene Zhao was featured in The Sun for having made more than £4million in ten days by selling NFTs.
“And even Logan Paul has bought her collection,” the piece added. Paul, who hails from the US, is one of YouTube’s biggest stars, with over 23.4 million followers.
For those of us who may not know what exactly a Non-Fungible Token is (and we’re pretty sure that’s still a sizable chunk of humanity), it’s “a unit of data on a digital ledger called a blockchain, where each NFT can represent a unique digital item, and thus they are not interchangeable.”
The NFTs in question are photos of the 28-year-old China-born, National University of Singapore educated model, one of the country’s biggest influencers with over 420 followers.
But what is setting Ms Zhao head and shoulders above the rest is her digital savvy.
On YouTube, her vlogs consistently get tens of thousands of hits.
And while she graduated from NUS with a communications degree, she’s also worked in fintech as a commodity broker and most recently as the chief marketing officer of a finance company called Konomi Network.
And, as her Twitter bio reads, what she’s really doing is “Disrupting the creator economy.”
As an Instagram influencer, her main source of income was product placements and advertisements, which she wasn’t too keen on, as a report in the South China Morning Post said.
Thus, her first NFT collection, IreneDAO (decentralised autonomous organisation) was born. By selling her NFTs—photos of her with signs that say “have fun staying poor” and “SIMP,” Zhao leverages her status as an influencer and receives payment as a content creator—independent of any other sponsorship, product or service they advertise.
Clever, clever girl.
On Jan 14, the day her collection launched, she announced that she was giving away one NFT in a tweet where she also wrote, “I will be working with DAO members to empower creators and their communities.”
Simplicity, Integrity, Meaning, Purpose.
Missed out on the free minting of IreneDAO NFT? I’m giving away 1 at midnight. All you need to do is retweet and follow @socol_io & @0xIreneDao. I will be working with DAO members to empower creators and their communities. LFG!👏🏻🤩 pic.twitter.com/6Rp9kCRqnG
— Irene Zhao (@Irenezhao_) January 14, 2022
Two days later, a tweet from @CryptoWhale announced “BREAKING: Logan Paul has purchased 20 NFTs from Irene Zhao (famous Instagram model) for over $270,000.”
BREAKING: Logan Paul has purchased 20 NFTs from Irene Zhao (famous Instagram model) for over $270,000. #NFT @LoganPaul #Irene pic.twitter.com/AwKhpUFSsK
— WhaleWire (@WhaleWire) January 16, 2022
Mike Novogratz, noted billionaire crypto investor jumped on the Irene Zhao bandwagon as well, tweeting, “Proud member of team @Irenezhao_ I love the hustle.”
Yes we are!! Proud member of team @Irenezhao_ I love the hustle. This young woman has created her own brand in less than a year. And NFT’s allows her to pull her community together. pic.twitter.com/iZiAqXj1iX
— Mike Novogratz (@novogratz) January 16, 2022
In a tweet thread on Jan 20, Ms Zhao showed she knows exactly what she’s doing.
/TISG
Read also: NFT earnings of S$7.5 million in 10 days for S’pore-based influencer Irene Zhao
NFT earnings of S$7.5 million in 10 days for S’pore-based influencer Irene Zhao