Source: nytimes.com
The exchange was among several firms to commit funds for the billionaire’s takeover of Twitter.
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance committed $500 million, while venture capital firm Sequoia Capital committed $800 million to finance Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover of social media platform Twitter (TWTR).
Around $7.1 billion has been committed by 19 different parties with investment firm Fidelity putting aside $316 million for the takeover
Tesla (TSLA) founder Elon Musk recently agreed to acquire the social media firm. Musk had said that he wants Twitter to be a proponent for free-speech. The billionaire is also a known supporter of cryptocurrencies, like memecoin dogecoin (DOGE) and bitcoin (BTC).
According to an updated Schedule 13D filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed on Wednesday, the world’s largest crypto exchange was among the equity investors for the deal. A Schedule 13D is a form which must be submitted to the SEC when an entity acquires more than 5% of a company’s equity.
Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao referred to the commitment as “a small contribution to the cause” in a tweet after the news emerged. Following Musk’s initial offer to buy Twitter last month, CZ tweeted that he should “Privatize it, issue a token, decentralize it,” adding that a priority should be reduce spam and scams on the platform.
A Binance spokesperson told CoinDesk that its involvement is “as a supporter of Elon Musk’s plans for Twitter and an investor.”
Musk’s takeover has also been endorsed by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.
A small contribution to the cause. https://t.co/xD9XZxOWfL
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) May 5, 2022
Shares of Twitter were up over 2% to $50.12, while shares of Tesla were down 0.6% to $946.98 in pre-market trading.
Binance coin (BNB) pumped from $399 to $414 following news of Binance’s commitment, before settling around $407 at the time of writing. BNB is used within Binance and on BNB Chain, a decentralized network that allows for the creation of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.
