While the age-old adage goes like this: “If you can’t beat them, join them”, Nicole Yap does neither. Instead, she decides to create her own team. After facing her own fair share of discrimination when it came to her ethnicity and her gender, launching 8sian in 2021 was her answer. Wanting to not only create an inclusive cyberspace for women in tech, Yap also intended for 8sian to be a platform where Southeast Asian cultures can be highlighted. As such, her maiden project consisted of 8,888 NFT artworks depicting the diversity of Asian women. To date, Yap hasn’t just worked with international brands like Uniqlo, she’s also collaborated with pewter manufacturer Royal Selangor by launching the physical pewter-and-jade sculpture of the 8sian Jade Lady NFT. Limited to only 100 pewter units and priced at 2.5 ETH, the first 8sian Jade Lady was bought by Matt Higgins, a renowned American businessman and investor best known for his guest appearance on business reality show, Shark Tank.

Next on the pipeline for Yap is a new collection of artworks centred on male characters.