Binance is going beyond the crypto world. This time, the largest exchange in terms of trading volume has decided to invest in the publishing house Forbes.
Huge money at stake
Binance currently holds an undeniably strong position on the cryptocurrency market. The exchange conducts numerous marketing campaigns in this very sector. Meanwhile, its staff decided to take an interest in traditional media. The target became an investment in Forbes.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao reveals the details of the move. As it turns out, the investment will be worth as much as $200 million. This amount includes half of the commitments from institutional investors. This will make the exchange the second largest owner of Forbes after it goes public. The funds are intended to support Forbes’ plan to merge the publishing house with a publicly traded special purpose acquisition vehicle (SPAC). The merger is expected to take place in the first quarter of this year. Thus the publishing house will gain the right to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, under the ticker FRBS. As a result of the financing, the stock exchange, owned by Changpeng Zhao, will also gain two seats on the board of the media company.
Long-standing traditions and a respected brand
Forbes is a publishing house that took its first steps exactly 104 years ago. Its founder and editor-in-chief was Steve Forbes – a two-time candidate for president of the United States. The brand is known around the world, mainly through its flagship magazine “Forbes”, where the annual rankings of the richest people in the world are published. Recently Changpeng Zhao has appeared among them. Moreover, Forbes is also famous for its digital publishing model. According to the editorial, it reaches 150 million readers worldwide, making the publication one of the largest mass media outlets.
Why is Binance investing in Forbes?
According to Changpeng Zhao, content generation is expected to be an area of growth and development for Web 3.0 in the near future, and he has in mind the development of the Internet, in its more decentralized form, and at the same time based on blockchain technology. One internal Binance source describes the investment in fairly direct terms:
“This is the first step in a market that really has a lot of potential when it comes to adopting tools based on Web 3.0. Our industry has seen tremendous growth in this aspect, and we think you’d have to be a fool not to position yourself in those sectors that are ripe for infrastructure investment.”
Binance’s move is an excellent marketing move that will increase the exchange’s visibility among Forbes readers. Moreover, a large portion of them are business people.
