Binance backs Musk bid with eye on bringing Twitter to web3
- The Binance deal was part of the US$7.1 billion of new financing that Musk has secured for his proposed US$44 billion takeover of Twitter
- Twitter has become the main platform for online discourse by the crypto community
Binance Holdings has committed US$500 million for Elon Musk’s proposed takeover of Twitter as part of its strategy to bring social media and news sites into the world of web3.
“We’re excited to be able to help Elon realise a new vision for Twitter,” Changpeng Zhao, chief executive officer of Binance, said in a statement. “We hope to be able to play a role in bringing social media and web3 together and broadening the use and adoption of crypto and blockchain technology.”
The deal was part of the US$7.1 billion of new financing that Musk has secured for his proposed US$44 billion takeover of Twitter. Sequoia Capital Fund, Qatar Holding, and Brookfield Asset Management are among other backers in the package.
Twitter is a main platform for online discourse by the crypto community. Yesterday, Musk briefly changed his Twitter avatar to a collage of Bored Ape NFTs, one of the most popular collections on the market. This resulted in a surge in the price of the ApeCoin token during European hours.
Binance is creating an internal team to focus on how blockchain could be helpful to Twitter and other social platforms, and has brought up BNB Chain – a distributed ledger Binance helped to build – to Musk and his team, Patrick Hillmann, chief communications officer for Binance, said in an interview.
“This is probably one of the greatest laboratories that web3 has ever had access to,” Hillmann said. “It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
BNB Chain is already used for decentralised finance and other applications and supports a token called BNB, which has a market capitalisation of about US$61.8 billion.