Simping for Irene Zhao: Singapore-based influencer's photos generate $7.5m as NFTs

Singapore-based influencer Irene Zhao's photos have generated millions of dollars, thanks to her army of ardent fans (or more accurately, simps).

The 28-year-old woman launched her non-fungible tokens (NFT) on Jan 14 and they blew up on the cryptocurrency market.

It seems like her simps — people who do way too much for a person they like — just can't get enough of her.

The sale of IreneDAO, a series of NFTs spawned from her Telegram meme sticker pack, has seen a trading volume of a whopping $7.5 million thus far.

[embed]https://twitter.com/Irenezhao_/status/1481948342938927106?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E14819483429389271[/embed]

She has however insisted that she is not profiting from this — at least not directly — and her objective is to encourage other content creators to take control of their work.

Zhao, a National University of Singapore alumna, was a commodity broker before pursuing a career in the crypto industry. 

The young woman told Cointelegraph that she was creating Telegram sticker packs for her fans when one of them suggested she mint them as NFTs.

Once she agreed to the suggestion, they tokenised the stickers into 1,106 NFTs which were sold out in minutes.

Throwing in some wordplay, the IreneDAO says its core values are "Simplicity, Integrity, Meaning, Purpose". 

And she's not the only one with a hot NFT. 

[embed]https://twitter.com/Ghozali_Ghozalu/status/1481273516016418822?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E148127351601[/embed]

In Indonesia, university student Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali recently sold the rights to selfies he had taken almost every day for the last five years.

The images fetched a neat $1.3 million.

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This article has been edited for clarity.

amierul@asiaone.com