The CEO of Binance says he hopes the exchange's stake in Forbes will push media companies toward adopting crypto and possibly decentralize the industry

• Chaopeng Zhang told NYT's DealBook that he hopes his stake in Forbes will push more media companies toward adopting crypto.
• Zhao, the CEO of Binance, also suggested this move might possibly lead towards decentralizing the industry.

Binance CEO Chaopeng Zhang said he hopes his firm's stake in Forbes will spur media companies to adopt cryptocurrencies, which could also help decentralize the industry.

When crypto companies integrate into the traditional economy, the digital asset industry will be harder to ignore, Zhang, more famously known as CZ, told the New York Times' DealBook newsletter on Friday.

"By investing in traditional businesses and helping them to integrate with crypto, it's an interesting play for us," he said. "It increases the perception of the integration of crypto into the traditional economy when crypto businesses are funding traditional businesses, what some readers call 'real' businesses."

Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, announced on Thursday a $200 million stake in Forbes Global Media ahead of the magazine's blank-check merger later this quarter.

The deal will help the 104-year-old magazine carry out its plans to merge with publicly-traded SPAC Magnum Opus. The stake makes Binance one of the top two biggest owners of Forbes.

CZ said the investment in Forbes can help nudge the publication as well as other traditional media outlets and their readers toward crypto more quickly.

"Number one is, yes, we definitely hope that they will write more about crypto in all of the newspapers. The second stage, maybe consider accepting Bitcoins for subscriptions or at least accept a stablecoin. Next is maybe some NFTs and you could issue a token for incentives," he told DealBook.

"And if the business is ready to go a fully decentralized way, utilizing writers everywhere in the world and have the crowd judge them by the amount of fees that they can receive," he added.

CZ however clarified that the intent of his exchange is not to run a news company. Instead, they were more focused on speeding up the integration of crypto.

He also highlighted how he does not "really get very involved" in Binance's mergers and acquisitions but did note that his team brought up the possibility of investing in a media company "maybe two or three months ago."

CZ founded Binance in 2017 and has been a prominent crypto figure across the world, including on social media. He has amassed over 5 million followers by tweeting regularly about digital assets. He appeared on the cover of Forbes magazine in 2018.

In 2020, Binance sued Forbes for defamation for reportedly revealing the exchange's efforts to evade regulators only to quietly drop the lawsuit after a few months.

Now with its investment in Forbes, Binance will also get two directors out of nine total board seats: Patrick Hillmann, chief communications officer for Binance; and Bill Chin, head of Binance Labs, the venture capital arm and incubator of the exchange.