Irene Zhao: Model’s Career in Crypto and Public Controversies

From the launch of IreneDAO, the influencer has been active in the crypto industry, initiating several projects. However, those projects either didn’t have long-term success or Irene left them soon after launching. 

The IreneDAO NFT collection that made Irene popular serves as access tickets to the decentralized community where people can participate in various initiatives, raise donations, and make collective decisions. Following the concept of DAOs, IreneDAO has been managed by community members and has a treasury generated by NFT sales. After an impressive debut on January 17 2022 and a starting price of around 3 Ether, her NFTs were quick to drop in price, hitting 0.7 Ether. The current average price of IreneDAO NFTs is 0.06 ETH on OpenSea. Zhao left IreneDAO soon to focus on her other project, the social network SO-COL, as mentioned on social media. Although IreneDAO continues to operate, the trading volume of the NFTs reveals that interest in the project isn’t high. 

SO-COL (social collectables) is a Web3 social platform designed for creators to mint NFTs and connect with fans. The platform was founded by Irene and friends in 2021 as a blockchain-based alternative to social networks like OnlyFans, Discord, and Twitch, according to the influencer’s LinkedIn account. SO-COL was created before IreneDAO but became widely known later when it began attracting investment. According to the founders, IreneDAO was initiated as a proof of concept to test the social media platform. From 2022 to 2023, SO-COL raised $6.25 million from companies including Animoca Brands, DWF Labs, and Blockchain Capital.

The investment from DWF Labs comes with a catch though. In February 2023, SO-COL announced receiving a $1.5 million investment from DWF in a funding round. However, data from the analytics platform Nansen showed that DWF’s crypto wallet received 3.3 million SIMP tokens between March 6 and March 24. This suggests that the investment involved a token-selling deal between the companies, implying that it was kept secret from other investors. SO-COL’s SIMP token fell sharply after its launch. Currently, SIMP trades at around $0.00093, down 97.3% from its all-time high of $0.08, based on data from CoinMarketCap.

Irene’s most recent project is the ASIAN MOM memecoin which she announced on July 11, 2024, on her birthday. Later, the co-founder of Solana-based exchange Jupiter, with the pseudonym Meow posted on X about collaborating with the influencer to launch an experimental meme coin metadata platform, called “I Love Asian Mom”. According to Meow’s post, the project will provide transparent mechanisms to launch the ASIAN MOM tokens, while the Jupiter DAO will receive 5% of the sales.

Apart from the mentioned 3 projects launched by Irene Zhao, her name was related to other projects. In 2021, Irene was the Chief Marketing Officer of the Konomi Network,  a decentralized money market on Polkadot with its native token KONO. She actively promoted the platform and its coin through different channels. KONO, initially trading at around $7, was quick to plummet, raising concerns among investors. At the beginning of 2022, Irene left the project. Despite the Konomi Network being active in 2024, the KONO token price hasn’t recovered after the shaky launch. 

Besides the above-listed, there were cases where scammers used Irene’s name to create fake pages and promote fraudulent projects. In July 2024, Irene announced that her Instagram account was suspended, while a scammer impersonating her had received a blue tick (Instagram's verification badge). The fake account has since been taken down, but Zhao has not confirmed whether her own account has been recovered.

Criticism Around Irene Zhao and Her Response 

Irene Zhao's crypto career has raised concerns among a group of crypto community members who criticized the influencer for not being transparent with the public. Among the critics is a crypto sleuth known by the username @ZachXBT on X. After the news about the launch of the ASIAN MOM meme-coin and the partnership with Jupiter, ZachXBT wrote that he found it hilarious to see Irene's involvement in a solution against opaque token sales. Sharing some of Irene's old publications around the sales of SIMP tokens, ZachXBT recalled her secret deal with DWF Labs, saying the SIMP token project deceived investors.

Irene responded to accusations with a lengthy post, mentioning different projects she’s been involved in separately. She admitted to making some mistakes and noted that she has learned from them.

Regarding IreneDAO, the influencer said the project started as a proof-of-concept she had little expectation of and was surprised when the NFT collection took off. From the NFT sales, the DAO donated $100,000 to ECPAT, an NGO fighting against child sex trafficking in Southeast Asia. Irene added she had no intention of controlling the project initially and it has been managed by the executive committee. She also mentioned that she didn't keep any NFTs for herself and left the DAO to focus on SO-COL, her social collectables platform.

When addressing the issues with SO-COL and the secret deal with DWF, Irene explained that as a first-time founder, she didn’t foresee all the risks related to people losing interest in the project and the price drop. According to the influencer, after the initial success with nearly 30,000 unique users, SO-COL faced difficulties in 2023 hit by crypto winter. Around this time, DWF offered an investment that included taking some control over the platform’s management. Irene said they accepted the offer to deal with financial difficulties but paused it afterward. She noted that she should have discussed the round with other investors while adding that the drop in the token’s price was due to a combination of factors such as the new narrative of Social-fi and market sentiment. According to the influencer, although investors lost money, the price drop wasn’t intentional and she hoped for a different outcome. 

Talking about ASIAN MOM, Irene assured that the project was built on past experiences and is focused on transparency and long-term support. The influencer concluded the post by saying she understands people’s concerns over the memecoin project and is open to questions, criticism and open conversations. 

Who Is Irene Zhao Actually?

With over 216,000 followers on X and launching new projects, Irene Zhao surely has some impact on the crypto industry. Having a bachelor’s degree in communication and new media, Irene worked as a commodity broker from 2017 to 2021. At the same time, she’s been an Instagram model and shifted to crypto in 2022 finding it difficult to get people’s trust, as seen from the post by ZachXBT we mentioned earlier. Based on social media comments and discussions, there are two camps of opinions: one supports Irene, and the other is suspicious of her activity because of previous failures. 

As a whole, it’s a bit confusing to figure out if Irene Zhao is someone looking for quick gains or launching user-focused projects. The anticipated launch of the  ASIAN MOM memecoin will perhaps provide some answers. In any case, be aware that the number of someone’s followers and the amount of raised investments don’t guarantee a project’s fairness and success. Stay informed and do your own research before making an investment.