Simp DAO queen Irene Zhao on why good memes are harder than trading: X Hall of Flame
Who is this person anyway?
Irene Zhao, the Simp-Queen mastermind behind the SO-COL platform and a Crypto Twitter influencer, explains that having a celebrity in your corner can turbocharge your NFT collection.
Zhao’s first Simp DAO and NFT collection, IreneDAO, started with a floor price that was basically pocket change in ETH.
“I think it was about zero-point-something ETH,” Zhao recalls.
However, the game changed for Zhao when controversial YouTube star Logan Paul threw in around a quarter of a million dollars in January 2022.
“The next day, I woke up, the floor price went up five times when Logan Paul bought about 20 pieces or something. I was really shocked,” she explains.
I can’t fix you ?? pic.twitter.com/oyMLut3S2F
— Irene Zhao (@Irenezhao_) November 4, 2023
Zhao reveals that Paul stumbled upon the project after billionaire crypto investor Mike Novogratz posted about it on Twitter. That kickstarted a friendship with Paul:
“Logan followed me on Twitter and Instagram after he bought my NFTs,” Zhao says, adding, however, that they’ve never managed to meet up.
“I was going to travel to Los Angeles, but at the time, he was somewhere in Puerto Rico. So, we didn’t get to meet in the end. But we do have conversations about NFTs.”
Rubbing virtual shoulders with big names like Paul is just a regular day in the life of a crypto influencer. Zhao boasts 194,300 Twitter followers, runs her own Web3 NFT platform company, SO-COL, and globe-trots to speak at crypto conferences.
“I meet a lot of cool and successful people, and they all have very interesting personalities. Otherwise, they wouldn’t choose crypto as a career because it’s a very dynamic and very fast-paced career industry.”
What led to Twitter fame?
Zhao had already built a following as a social media influencer in the Web2 space, and much like Bitcoiners orange-pilling their friends, she has introduced most of her followers to NFTs.
“I have been building my own personal branding as a key opinion leader across various social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube. So, right now, I have about half a million followers across all platforms.”
She jumped into crypto because she wanted to have control over her own content. She was fed up with only monetizing her content by promoting products, which is how Web2 influencers make a living.
“I’ve built a deep connection with a lot of big brands, but it kind of sucks, because even though I have a very huge following on all other social media platforms, I don’t really get most of the benefits. I don’t really own my content or my community.”
Zhao set up one of the first Simp DAOs, where NFT purchasers could join her Irene DAO fan club and get closer to their Simp Queen. She later spun this idea out for the SO-COL platform.
In my health is wealth era?
I’m so ready for the road trip with @truck_memecoin pic.twitter.com/2Wh1TqsIps
— Irene Zhao (@Irenezhao_) November 1, 2023
Zhao jokingly mentions that she’s a big deal in Asia but can roam under the radar in the Western world:
“They recognize me, especially in Asia, but in the Western world, the white people can’t really recognize Asian people. They think everybody looks the same,” she laughs.
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What content can people expect?
Zhao isn’t a fan of the serious tone of some in the crypto world. In her perspective, those who enjoy technical or trading discussions might not necessarily be the most appealing minds in the crypto community.
“I think I like the shitposting. It’s pretty funny; it’s very entertaining to look at all the memes.”
Zhao holds the belief that making crypto memes requires a bigger brain than sharing trading tips:
“It is a very smart move because you have to understand the market, and you have to understand the audience to come up with the exact meme that people want. So, it’s a very rare talent to have.”
Nasty Beef: Lady of Crypto
Zhao had a public beef with fellow crypto influencer Lady of Crypto in December 2021.
The feud lit up after Zhao lightly teased her on Twitter for dishing out a no-brainer tweet.
“She was predicting the price of Bitcoin or something, but it was a super obvious trend. So, I was like, ‘You are stating the obvious,’ and then she got offended.”
The situation took a sour twist when Lady of Crypto fired back with some nasty comments about Zhao’s English skills, saying, “In your vids, you can barely string two words together.”
Zhao didn’t let it get to her personally and thought it was “super funny.”
Ever the businesswoman, Zhao was more interested in the fact that the post accumulated around “4 million impressions.”
Predictions?
Zhao’s predictions are pretty much in line with common, received wisdom. She’s eagerly anticipating Bitcoin to reach the $100,000 mark.
However, she’s also betting big on real-world assets taking off in the next year:
“Of course, I’m still bullish on BTC, Ethereum and all the basics. People are talking about RWA a lot. I think real world assets are probably going to go big in the next 12 months.”
She also believes that NFTs still have room for growth because plenty of celebrities haven’t hopped on the bandwagon yet.
“I think NFTs for creators is going to be a real hype really soon because we haven’t really experienced it yet,” she explains.
“I’m still bullish on social collectibles because we haven’t really onboarded all the Web2 creators to NFTs yet. So, I think there is still much room for that.”
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According to the US Department of Justice, Wolf Capital’s co-founder has pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy for luring 2,800 crypto investors into a Ponzi scheme.
Making Britain better off will be “at the forefront of the chancellor’s mind” during her visit to China, the Treasury has said amid controversy over the trip.
Rachel Reeves flew out on Friday after ignoring calls from opposition parties to cancel the long-planned venture because of market turmoil at home.
The past week has seen a drop in the pound and an increase in government borrowing costs, which has fuelled speculation of more spending cuts or tax rises.
The Tories have accused the chancellor of having “fled to China” rather than explain how she will fix the UK’s flatlining economy, while the Liberal Democrats say she should stay in Britain and announce a “plan B” to address market volatility.
However, Ms Reeves has rejected calls to cancel the visit, writing in The Times on Friday night that choosing not to engage with China is “no choice at all”.
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The chancellor will be accompanied by Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey and other senior executives.
She will meet with her counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng, in Beijing on Saturday to discuss financial services, trade and investment.
She will also “raise difficult issues”, including Chinese firms supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and concerns over constraints on rights and freedoms in Hong Kong, the Treasury said.
But it did not mention whether Ms Reeves would raise the treatment of the Uyghur community, which Downing Street said Foreign Secretary David Lammy would do during his visit last year.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing. Pic: AP
On Friday, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy defended the trip, telling Sky News that the climbing cost of government borrowing was a “global trend” that had affected many countries, “most notably the United States”.
“We are still on track to be the fastest growing economy, according to the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] in Europe,” she told Anna Jones on Sky News Breakfast.
“China is the second-largest economy, and what China does has the biggest impact on people from Stockton to Sunderland, right across the UK, and it’s absolutely essential that we have a relationship with them.”
Read more – Ed Conway analysis: The chancellor’s gamble with China
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Nandy defends Reeves’ trip to China
However, former prime minister Boris Johnson said Ms Reeves had “been rumbled” and said she should “make her way to HR and collect her P45 – or stay in China”.
While in the country’s capital, Ms Reeves will also visit British bike brand Brompton’s flagship store, which relies heavily on exports to China, before heading to Shanghai for talks with representatives across British and Chinese businesses.
It is the first UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) since 2019, building on the Labour government’s plan for a “pragmatic” policy with the world’s second-largest economy.
Sir Keir Starmer was the first British prime minister to meet with China’s President Xi Jinping in six years at the G20 summit in Brazil last autumn.
Relations between the UK and China have become strained over the last decade as the Conservative government spoke out against human rights abuses and concerns grew over national security risks.
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How much do we trade with China?
Navigating this has proved tricky given China is the UK’s fourth largest single trading partner, with a trade relationship worth almost £113bn and exports to China supporting over 455,000 jobs in the UK in 2020, according to the government.
During the Tories’ 14 years in office, the approach varied dramatically from the “golden era” under David Cameron to hawkish aggression under Liz Truss, while Rishi Sunak vowed to be “robust” but resisted pressure from his own party to brand China a threat.
The Treasury said a stable relationship with China would support economic growth and that “making working people across Britain secure and better off is at the forefront of the chancellor’s mind”.
Ahead of her visit, Ms Reeves said: “By finding common ground on trade and investment, while being candid about our differences and upholding national security as the first duty of this government, we can build a long-term economic relationship with China that works in the national interest.”
The Bitcoin Act’s passage could eventually send BTC’s price past $1 million per coin, industry executives say.
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