Alibaba Executive speaks on Crypto amidst recent Govt. Crackdowns

Despite the recent crackdowns of crypto in China Joe Tsai, an executive Vice-chairman of Alibaba recently expressed his fondness for the new-age currency. Tsai shared his feelings on Twitter with a few words, simply stating “I life crypto.”

Tsai has previously shared his thoughts on cryptocurrency in an interview with Sportico’s Brendan Coffey last August. During the interview, the executive spoke on media convergence, sports betting, and crypto. 

“Media, sports betting, crypto-we see all those things converging a little bit,” Tsai explained. “You can’t talk about sports betting these days without thinking how that affects your media rights. And maybe, for the betting fan base, injecting a little bit of crypto will be interesting.”

However, despite Tsai’s sentiments, Alibaba has steered away from crypto. Last September, the e-commerce giant announced that it will cease to sell specialized mining equipment in response to the People’s Bank of China’s stringent policy.

The company has recently announced that it will halt the operations of Blockchain Miner Accessories and Blockchain Miners. Furthermore, it went to ban all cryptocurrencies across all its platforms. 

China’s ‘war’ against crypto reached severe levels this year as the government proceeded to ban all crypto operations in the country. The crackdowns on crypto mining and trading started in May and have thus escalated quickly. This was a serious blow to the country’s crypto industry as a once-thriving scene transferred into a shell of what it was. 

Due to these circumstances, Alibaba’s support of crypto has ended. However, the company’s participation in the metaverse is another story. The metaverse has sparked the interests of multiple tech giants as many have rushed to be included in the metaverse with new trademark applications.