China-based giant company Alibaba announced today that its founder, Joseph Tsai, will take over as Chairman of the Board from September.
China-based Company Coming to Alibaba, Crypto Friendly President
This leadership change, where the company has appointed Eddie Yongming Wu as its new CEO, came as it reorganized itself into multiple units, separating its technology services from its retail divisions.
The fact that such a large institution in China has someone who has previously declared a love for crypto could be a sign that Alibaba may position itself to embrace the new Web3 and crypto reality in China when that day comes.
Tsai first announced his interest in the Web3 space by tweeting "I love Crypto" in December 2021.
At the time, Tsai did not elaborate on what he meant, but over the following year he became an active investor in the space.
Blue Pool Capital, which Tsai uses as his family office, was a minority shareholder in FTX and participated in two fundraising rounds, the South China Morning Post reported in January 2023. This was unknown at the time and only appeared in court documents.
But Tsai has also been involved in more well-known investments such as Polygon's February 2022 tour, Web3 fantasy sports platform Fast Break Labs fundraiser, and NFT platform Artifact Labs May 2023 tour (it was a subsidiary of the South China Morning Post, where he served as chairman). .
Tsai is also the owner of the Brooklyn Nets, which has seen two of its key players Kevin Durant and Spencer Dinwiddie get involved in crypto; While Durant signed a two-year deal with Dapper Labs alongside a deal to promote Coinbase (COIN) in 2021, Dinwiddie said he tokenized his business contract.
*Not investment advice.