Quick take:
- Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao says he thinks he will stand by his decision to back Musk’s Twitter bid.
- Elon Musk said on Tuesday he expects to complete his purchase of the social media platform by Friday.
- Binance’s decision to back Musk is part of its strategy to onboard social media and news sites into the world of web3.
Changpeng “CZ” Zhao plans to uphold his backing of Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter. The Binance CEO said on Tuesday that he thinks he’ll stand by the financial backing offered when the Tesla CEO first made the offer.
Binance in May said it would invest $500 million in Musk’s $44 billion purchase of the social media platform. The crypto exchange services provider was joined by several other companies and individual investors, including Oracle founder Larry Ellison and venture capital firm Sequoia.
And with Musk saying he now expects to wrap up the deal by October 28, CZ has maintained his financial backing of the acquisition.
When Binance first offered to invest in the deal, the company said it was part of its strategy of backing projects that could contribute to bringing social media and news sites to web3.
In June, Binance raised $500 million in a round backed by DST Global Partners and Breyer Capital, alongside several family offices to expand its web3 strategy. And earlier in October, CZ revealed that Binance was committed to investing more than $1 billion in 2022 in projects investing in NFTs, DeFi, and publishing.
The $1 billion investment guide included $500 million backing for Musk’s Twitter acquisition.
While speaking in Riyadh Saudi Arabia at the kingdom’s Future Investment Initiative conference on Tuesday, Zhao said: “I think so,” responding to a question about whether he will stand by his financial commitment to Musk.
According to a report published by Bloomberg last week, Musk’s bid to buy Twitter and his satellite internet venture Starlink may be subject to review by the US security teams.
The world’s richest person also has until Friday to complete the deal with Twitter, or the case goes back to court.
Musk’s plans to buy the social media company hit a snag before they took off after claiming some of the data provided by Twitter was flawed amid bot activity.
After threatening to walk out of the deal, Musk eventually decided to proceed with the acquisition, clearing the path for Binance to fulfil a part of its web3 strategy. CZ and Binance see publishing platforms, social media and news sites as critical to onboarding masses to web3.
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