Allied Gaming Names James Li As CEO Amid Delisting, Activist Pressures

Allied Gaming & Entertainment (AGAE) on Thursday named insider Yangyang (James) Li as its new chief executive officer, effective immediately.

Li will continue to serve as the president of the company and chairman of its board. He replaces Yinghua Chen, who will move to an advisory role. Chen will continue to serve as CEO of Allied Gaming's subsidiary, Allied Esports.

In a statement, Allied Gaming said Li aims to tokenize real-world assets and explore the company's use of cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies. He also plans to pursue acquisitions.

In recent months, an increasing number of companies have adopted cryptocurrency strategies. One of the more popular approaches — seen in cases like GameStop — involves converting part of their cash reserves into cryptocurrency and even raising debt to expand those holdings, to benefit from potential price appreciation.

The top-level change comes as the mobile gaming and esports company faces concerns about delisting and activist pressures.

The company received a delisting notice from Nasdaq last week for failing to hold an annual shareholder meeting within twelve months of its fiscal year-end and for not filing its Q1 2025 Form 10-Q on time.

Meanwhile, the company is in a months-long legal tussle with activist investor Knighted Pastures, led by Roy Choi, who is seeking representation on the board.

On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment for the company was 'bearish,' unchanged from a month ago, with 'low' message volume.

Allied Gaming's shares currently trade at about one-third of their price at the company's initial public offering in October 2017. They have risen 284% this year to just over $3.

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