Crypto exchange Binance's CEO invests $500 mn in Twitter to "support" free speech

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance's CEO Changpeng Zhao has said that his company invested $500 million in Elon Musk's Twitter because he is "extremely supportive" of free speech.

Zhao, famously known as CZ, told an audience at the Web Summit in Lisbon that "when we invest in a deal, we're very comfortable if the deal goes through. We're very comfortable if the deal doesn't go through. We always want to get to a point where we're in that position".

"Number one is that we want to be extremely supportive of free speech," he said. "Twitter is an important free speech platform."

Zhao admitted that he was "honestly" a "little bit surprised" when the deal finally went through as Musk is a "pretty hard guy for me to predict".

"I'm a heavy Twitter user," added the Binance CEO.

Zhao also sees Twitter as an important business development tool, calling himself an "active Twitter user" who uses the app more than he uses the Binance app, reports TechCrunch.

Zhao said Binance aceloves to support Musk's "different ideas".

"We're very supportive of anything that can reduce the bots on Twitter," he noted.

Twitter boss Musk has announced that users can get their accounts verified with the new Blue plan at a price of $8.

"Power to the people! Blue for $8 per month," he tweeted.

The world's richest man also said that the "price adjusted by country is proportional to purchasing power parity".

Musk mentioned the additional benefits that the users will get with the new Twitter Blue plan including, "priority in replies, mentions and search, ability to post long video and audio, half as many advertisements".

Zhao admitted that he doesn't have details about what's happening inside Twitter HQ right now.

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