Who is Irene Zhao, the Singapore Instagram influencer who made over US$5 million selling her photos as NFTs – and caught Logan Paul’s attention in the process?
- YouTuber Logan Paul spent over US$250,000 on the IreneDAO NFT collection she launched to provide an opportunity for influencers to be more fairly compensated
- By being an Insta model for brands like Zalora and ADLV for fun and a decentralised finance expert by profession, Zhao found a smart way to combine the two
Over the last few months, the 28-year-old has gone from being a model to a notable figure in the cryptocurrency space. And although many have written off her success as a stroke of luck, there’s a lot more to Zhao’s NFT collection, IreneDAO, than meets the eye.
Zhao’s journey into the world of blockchain has been nothing short of remarkable. In a space which hasn’t been short of controversy – influencers have often baited their followers into pump-and-dump schemes, boosting the price of a stock through fake recommendations – her NFT collection has actually been delivering on its promises.
Before getting into that though, here’s how Zhao got to where she is today.
She started her influencer journey while at university
Zhao moved to Singapore from China as a teenager, back in 2008. After finishing schooling, she enrolled at the National University of Singapore to pursue a degree in communications. This was when she began posting on Instagram as well. Her content mainly consisted of fashion and fitness related posts and she only had around 800 followers at first. She claims that she “got lucky” when people started liking her photos.
In the six years since then, Zhao’s following has grown to 420,000. She has made Singapore her home and has no apparent plans of leaving any time soon.
As one of the 10 top influencers in the country, Zhao has worked with Asian brands such as Zalora and Acmé De La Vie. She shows off her wardrobe on an almost-daily basis, and we swear we’ve never seen her wear the same outfit twice.