Binance, World’s Biggest Crypto Exchange, Backs Elon Musk’s Twitter Buyout

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Elon Musk has secured equity financing from almost 20 investors to buy Twitter. Win McNamee/Getty Images

Binance has committed $500 million in equity financing to fund Elon Musk’s buyout of Twitter. It’s a move that would see the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange take a stake in the social media group should Musk succeed in taking it private.

Musk raised more than $7.1 billion in equity finance from a diverse group of almost 20 investors for his $44 billion takeover from Twitter (ticker: TWTR), according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Along with Binance, the investors helping the CEO of Tesla (TSLA) bankroll the deal includes Oracle (ORCL) co-founder Larry Ellison as well as venture capital giant Sequoia and asset managers Brookfield and Fidelity. Investors from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Dubai round out the group.

“We’re excited to be able to help Elon realize a new vision for Twitter,” Changpeng Zhao, the co-founder and CEO of Binance known as CZ, said in an emailed statement to Barron’s. “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.”

Musk’s move to buy Twitter has energized the digital asset space in recent weeks. The high-profile billionaire is a loud proponent of cryptocurrencies and has disclosed that he personally holds Bitcoin, Ether, and Dogecoin.

Tesla revealed last year that it bought Bitcoin, and $1.3 billion in digital assets remained on the electric vehicle maker’s books as of the end of March. Musk’s aerospace company, SpaceX, also owns Bitcoin.

At the heart of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether is a push for decentralization from a single authority, and the crypto community is keenly watching how Twitter under Musk’s leadership could play a role in that process. In focus is Bluesky, an internal Twitter project spun out of the company that is focused on creating a decentralized standard for social media. Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey—another crypto advocate—sits on its board.

In a tweet following the news, CZ said Binance’s role in the equity finance was “a small contribution to the cause.”

Write to Jack Denton at [email protected]

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