Binance, Sequoia Among Investors Backing Musk's Takeover of Twitter

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance committed $500 million and venture capital firm Sequoia Capital $800 million to help finance Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover of social media platform Twitter (TWTR).

Around $7.1 billion has been committed by 19 different parties with Fidelity putting aside $316 million for the takeover

Musk, who founded electric car maker Tesla (TSLA), has agreed to buy Twitter and had said that he wants the platform to be a proponent for free speech. The billionaire is also a known supporter of cryptocurrencies, like dogecoin (DOGE) and bitcoin (BTC).

According to an updated Schedule 13D filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday, the world's largest crypto exchange was among the equity investors for the deal. A Schedule 13D is a form that must be submitted to the SEC when an entity acquires more than 5% of a company's equity.

Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao referred to the commitment as "a small contribution to the cause" in a tweet after the news emerged. Following Musk's initial offer to buy Twitter last month, Zhao tweeted that Musk should "Privatize it, issue a token, decentralize it," adding that a priority should be to reduce spam and scams on the platform.

A Binance spokesperson told CoinDesk that the exchange's involvement is "as a supporter of Elon Musk's plans for Twitter and an investor."

Musk's takeover has also been endorsed by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.

Shares of Twitter were up over 2% to $50.12, while shares of Tesla were down 0.6% to $946.98 in premarket trading.

Binance coin (BNB) jumped from $399 to $414 following news of Binance's commitment, before settling at about $407 at the time of writing. BNB is used within Binance and on BNB Chain, a decentralized network that allows for the creation of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.

Read more: Dorsey Praises Musk's Twitter Buy: 'Elon Is the Singular Solution'

UPDATE (May 5, 11:22 UTC): Updates headline and lead. Adds additional details throughout.

UPDATE (May 5, 11:54 UTC): Adds comment from Binance in sixth paragraph. Updates share price and adds background.