Takeover of Twitter: Binance wants to help Elon Musk in the transaction
Changpeng Zhao, head of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, said he has pledged $500 million to fund Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter to support freedom of expression.
“Twitter is probably the most important free speech platform in the world”said the entrepreneur in an interview with AFP in Paris during the VivaTech show. “We want to support freedom of expression”added the one who calls himself CZ.
Elon Musk formulated in April a project to acquire Twitter for 44 billion dollars, saying he wanted to free speech on the platform. He notably said he was ready to reinstate former US President Donald Trump, excluded from the network after the invasion of the Capitol in Washington.
In early May, the boss of Tesla raised more than 7 billion dollars to finance the transaction from several investors, including the founder of the Oracle IT group, Larry Ellison (1 billion dollars), the fund Sequoia Capital (800 million), and Binance (500 million). But he has since cast doubt on his ambitions, threatening to withdraw his offer if he does not obtain reliable data on the number of fake accounts in circulation on Twitter.
For his part, Changpeng Zhao of Binance says he will side with Elon Musk’s decision, whatever it is. “He takes matters into his own hands and we follow him. If Elon wants to go all the way, so do we. If Elon cancels the transaction, it is very likely that we will also withdraw ”.
