Here’s yet another use for NFTs: simping.

A collection of 1,107 pictures of Chinese crypto-influencer and Instagram star Yuqing Irene Zhao are selling for a minimum of 3.15 Ether (US$10,300), just two days after they were available to be minted for free.

YouTuber Logan Paul this morning bought 20 of the IreneDAO “tribe passes” for a total of approximately 85.9 Ether (US$280,000),  his OpenSea wallet indicates.

Billionaire crypto investor Mike Novogratz tweeted that he’d bought in, as well.


When Stockhead checked Opensea this afternoon, there’d been 18 sales for between 2.89 to 3.45 Ether in the past two hours.

There was already a fake IreneDAO set up on Opensea and some were predicting the success of the project would lead to many imitators.

For those unfamiliar with the term, “simping” refers to the phenomenon of fawning over someone. Attractive female crypto-influencers tend to attract a huge number of simps who tell them how good they look.

Some saw this as problematic.

Believe it or not, there is a method to this madness, from what Stockhead has been able to discern.
According to messages in IreneDAO’s Discord, the project was started as a proof of concept for Socol, a StarkNet and Immutable X powered fan platform that describes itself as a decentralised version of OnlyFans.

Zhao is involved in building the platform, according to her Instagram, where she has 337,000 followers.