Binance chipped in $500 million of equity financing to help Elon Musk buy Twitter. Now that the deal is complete, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange is being louder about how it sees opportunities for crypto on the social media platform.
Binance’s role in funding Musk’s Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) take-private represents just one part of how the crypto space sees digital assets playing a role on the influential social media site. Musk himself has been an outspoken proponent of cryptocurrencies, with the billionaire CEO of Tesla TSLA –2.41% owning BitcoinBTCUSD –0.43%, EtherETHUSD –1.28%, and DogecoinDOGEUSD –7.02%, and pushing his companies to be at the forefront of adopting crypto.
Speculation over how crypto may have new uses on Twitter has been reinvigorated since the final days before the deal’s completion last Friday. While it’s just that—speculation—the main themes boil down to Twitter buying Bitcoin for its corporate treasury and expanding payments on the platform to include crypto, whether that be in peer-to-peer transactions or microtransactions that verify users.
There is also a broader view being pushed by Binance that Twitter could lead innovation in “Web3,” a vision of the next generation of the internet with decentralization at its heart, including crypto underpinning the digital economy.
“We look at this as a massive, historic opportunity for R&D—a chance to take a prestigious Web2 platform in Twitter and use it as a sandbox,” Patrick Hillman, chief strategy officer at Binance, said in a video interview with CoinDesk on Tuesday. “For us, it’s all about getting crypto at the table.”
Hillman said that issues that have plagued the “Web2” internet could be solved with Web3 technologies, such as using non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, to help with user verification, or expanding Twitter as a payments system.
Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s founder and CEO known as CZ, has also piped up about the deal now that it’s closed, saying that first among the multiple reasons they supported Musk’s funding was to support Twitter as a free speech platform. There’s also a crypto angle.
“We want to make sure crypto has a seat at the table when it comes to free speech,” CZ said in a video interview with CNBC on Monday. “There are more tactical things—we want to help bring Twitter into Web3 when they’re ready,” he added, such as using crypto as a form of payment when charging for memberships.
But those in the crypto space probably shouldn’t hold their breath for digital assets to expand on Twitter at a breakneck pace. Musk likely has a lot of bigger fish to fry, like ironing out plans to charge verified users or dealing with the potential fallout from firings. And the world’s richest man isn’t known for being pushed around.
When the time is right to get into Web3, Binance will be a critical partner, said Hillman, but the crypto executive was clear that Musk is driving Twitter’s priorities.
“Elon Musk’s probably a hard guy for me to predict,” CZ said Tuesday at the Web Summit conference in Portugal, as reported by CNBC. “I’m not the CEO of Twitter. We’re an investor in Twitter but I’m not running it.”
Featured Image- Unsplash @ Kanchanara
Author Valerie Remorosa 
