AN Instagram model has made over £4million in 10 days selling pictures of herself as NFTs – and even Logan Paul has bought her collection.
Paul ended up buying 20 NFTs from Singaporean model Irene Zhao worth a whopping £200,000.
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Zhao’s collection consists of more than a thousand items, including images of her and crypto slang phrases like “Damp It,” “Up Only,” “Simp” and “Wen Moon” and can be bought on Opensea – a peer-to-peer market place for NFTs and other rare digital collectables, according to Cointelegraph.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are a unique piece of data – typically a drawing, Tweet, meme or game character – that can’t be replaced and are traded on digital markets.
Buying an NFT, like any collectable, is a risky bet on the value going up.
If there is no demand for the NFT you buy then you could end up paying a large amount for something that declines in value or that you cannot sell.
NFTs are still a new market so there is unlikely to be the same demand you will find for other physical items such as trading cards, art or classic cars.
You could also create your own NFT but there is no guarantee of a buyer and you could end up wasting your time and money.
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They’ve become the go-to for influencers, artists and celebrities who use them to promote their own products and often take cryptos like Ethereum in exchange.
But for Zhao – who has 420k Instagram followers – selling her IreneDAO collection has got to do with more than just money.
Instead it’s “a global grassroots movement aimed at disrupting the creator economy,” according to her Opensea listing.
“IreneDAO is for the people, by the people. Our core values are: Sincerity, Integrity, Meaning, and Purpose.”
But it’s still a nice way to make money given her cheapest NFT of the “Have Fun Staying Poor” meme costs 0.94 Ethereum, or about £1650.
Her collection has already sold 2,300 Ethereum, which is equivalent to over £4million.
The savvy entrepreneur – who started modelling on Instagram while she was a student at University in Singapore – explained why her collection was anything but “a fluke” or an “Asian fetish”.
“In order to make anything out of my posts, I need to take on product placements and paid advertisements,” she posted on Twitter.
“I came to a point where every other day, I am posting paid content. Why? I have no choice. That’s who I feed myself.”
Paul and Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz are among those to buy in.
Mike tweeted he was a “proud member of team Irene Zhao” while Paul confirmed coughing up £200,000 for 20 of Zhao’s NFTs.
NFTs have become an easy to make cash online for influencers.
One student in Indonesia made $1million from selling selfies as NFTs online.
“Side-eye Chloe” – whose meme of her throwing shade from the backseat of a car – is selling her the infamous image as a NFT.
Chloe’s family are aiming to auction the image using the crypto Ethereum at a rate equalling roughly $15,000, according to the Huffington Post.
And then there’s Zoe Roth, dubbed “Disaster Girl” after a meme of her outside a burning house went viral in 2004.
Now 21, Roth sold the image for £341,000 in 2021.
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