Binance Supported Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover With $500M, Says SEC Filing

Binance – the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange – is among a list of major equity investors backing Elon Musk’s Twitter bid. The company supported the tech mogul with $500 million, alongside an additional $1 billion from other crypto-supportive firms.

Binance Backs Elon

Binance’s backing was revealed in an updated Schedule 13D filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday. It lists 19 different parties that contributed a total of around $7.1 billion to the Tesla CEO.

Elon Musk closed his deal to acquire Twitter last month for $44 billion, at $54.20 per share. He claims he wants to make the platform a ”virtual town square” and beacon of free speech. However, he claimed that Twitter could not do so while remaining public, and thus wishes to “unlock” its potential alone.

Leading up to the acquisition, the billionaire reportedly secured $46 billion in funding. This included $25.5 billion from fully committed debt and margin loan financing, and a $21 billion equity commitment.

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Numerous figures within the crypto community showed support for the buyout, including Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey. “Elon is the singular solution I trust,” he said, determining that privatization solves Twitter’s issues surrounding Wall Street control.

Binance CEO Changepeng Zhao was also optimistic about the deal. He called his company’s $500 million support a “small contribution to the cause”.

Tension grew between both Zhao and Musk in November after the latter criticized Binance for its “shady” Dogecoin withdrawal issues. Musk has become a de facto leader within the dogecoin community, with large influence over the coin’s price.

However, Zhao was quick to offer him crypto-based ideas about how Musk could improve Twitter under his watch. “Privatize it, issue a token, decentralize it,” he said, also calling for NFT and metaverse integrations.

Crypto Community Support

Some of Musk’s plans already appeal to the broader crypto community. He seeks to combat the spambots that heavily plague the space while making Twitter’s source code more open source.

A spokesperson for Binance told Coindesk that the company’s involvement is “as a supporter of Elon Musk’s plans for Twitter and an investor.”

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Other investments listed in Wednesday’s filing include $800 million from Sequoia Capital and $316 million from Fidelity. Sequoia raised $600 million to invest in crypto last month, while Fidelity has shown major support for Bitcoin’s monetary properties.