Alibaba’s co-founder Joseph Tsai will replace Daniel Zhang as chairman of Alibaba’s board.
The changes will take effect on September 10, 2023.
Before his appointment, Tsai was Zhang’s deputy.
The entrepreneur, whose fortune is estimated at $7.8 billion, is known as a proponent of digital assets. In 2021 he admitted to a ‘love for cryptocurrencies’.
I like crypto
— Joe Tsai (@joetsai1999) December 28, 2021
In January 2023, FTX court filings showed that Tsai’s venture firm Blue Pool Capital backed the that filed for bankruptcy platform.
According to Crunchbase, the company participated in 25 funding rounds, including six — as lead investor. Blue Pool Capital exited six projects, including Animoca Brands.
In July 2021, Tsai’s firm was among participants in an investment round for an NFT-game developer for $50 million. Earlier Blue Pool Capital supported the project The Sandbox.
According to The Block, the news of Tsai’s appointment sparked speculation about possible lifting of China’s cryptocurrency restrictions.
These conjectures are reinforced by the authorities’ recent publication of the White Paper on Web3 Innovation and Development (2023). In the document, the technology was described as the ‘inevitable trend for the future development of the internet industry’.
Earlier, in May 2023, the Avalanche team agreed to collaborate with Alibaba Cloud to create a platform for deploying metaverses.
Earlier the cloud services provider announced the launch of a ‘blockchain-laboratory’ in Japan to build Web3 games.