Alibaba Names Crypto-Friendly Joseph Tsai as New Chairman
Alibaba has announced that crypto-friendly Joseph Tsai, currently Executive Vice Chairman, will replace eight-year veteran chief Daniel Zhang as the company's new Chairman.
In a Tuesday press release, the company also said that Eddie Wu, now chairman of Alibaba’s core Taobao and Tmall online commerce divisions, will take over as chief executive of the $240 billion company.
The appointments will take effect on September 10, 2023.
The leadership shuffle comes as Alibaba is trying to pursue a six-way restructuring in a bid to create a family of standalone leaders in businesses from cloud computing and logistics to international commerce.
However, inside the crypto community, it has prompted speculations that the move may signal Alibaba's intention to embrace Web3 and crypto in China as the country continues to experiment with the sector in Hong Kong.
That is because Tsai has been a vocal advocate of cryptocurrencies and digital assets.
He first announced his interest in the Web3 space in December 2021 with a short tweet: “I like Crypto.”
Ever since, Tsai has been an active investor in the space, participating in fund-raising rounds for now-collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, popular Ethereum scaling solution Polygon, and NFT and metaverse platform Artifact Labs.
He also owns the Brooklyn Nets, which has seen two of its key players, Kevin Durant and Spencer Dinwiddie, get involved in crypto.
Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of China which currently enjoys some autonomy, has recently shown a clear desire to rebuild its position as a hub for the industry.
Earlier this month, the city's financial regulator implemented its new regulatory framework for crypto on the first of June.
Under the new rulebook, the city-state
Read more on cryptonews.com
