Alibaba Exec Hints At Crypto Investment?
Blockchain gained another supporter today in Joe Tsai, the executive vice-chairman of Chinese multinational Alibaba Group.
“I like crypto,” Tsai tweeted on Monday night, without warning.
Avid Twitter user and Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao, responded shortly after with “I like Joe,” hinting he was a fan of this notion.
Tsai came into the limelight in 2019 with his purchase of the Brooklyn Nets, from Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov for a then league record of $2.35 billion.
This show of support comes just two weeks after NBA All-Star and Nets Player Kevin Durant signed a new promotional deal with Coinbase, America’s largest crypto exchange. The deal will see Coinbase run ads on Durant’s sports website, as well as donating to the NBA star’s charity.
While it the not abundantly clear what Tsai meant by “crypto,” earlier in 2021 the 57-year-old billionaire entrepreneur talked of the idea of issuing fan tokens and NFT’s, as well as other activities to help with fan engagement.
“We in the NBA now have the potential for teams to issue fan tokens,” Tsai said in an October interview with NetsDaily. “It’s been discussed, hasn’t been approved but people in Europe have already been doing this with soccer teams in Europe issuing fan tokens which have privileges attached to it.”
Tsai’s support for crypto isn’t just significant for the Nets, but also politically, he is number two behind Jack Ma, founder of the e-commerce giant. The Chinese government has consistently tried to slow the adoption of crypto by Chinese tech companies such as Alibaba.
“In China’s tech industry, Ma is considered the creative force, and Tsai the one who turned ideas into action,” the New York Times wrote in 2019.
In September, following China’s “ban” on crypto, Alibaba made the announcement that they would no longer be selling specialized crypto mining hardware on its platform. The firm also went as far as to ban its platform from selling cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
While exciting to see another billionaire tweet support for the space, it should not be taken as a full-blown sign of Alibaba allowing crypto back on its platform. That being said, this should give hope to many within the country eager to get back to trading these assets.