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Binance makes $200 million 'strategic investment' in Forbes

It's not the first crypto firm to make a media play. But just over a year ago, Binance was suing Forbes.

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Binance is making a $200 million "strategic investment" in Forbes.

Photo: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Binance is making a $200 million “strategic investment” in Forbes, a move that underlines the crypto powerhouse's growing clout and apparent ambitions in U.S. media.

Binance, the world’s biggest crypto marketplace, is making the investment as the business publication founded in 1917 prepares to go public through a SPAC merger with Magnum Opus Acquisition Limited.

“As Web3 and blockchain technologies move forward and the crypto market comes of age we know that media is an essential element to build widespread consumer understanding and education,” Binance CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao said in a statement.

In a tweet, Zhao also said, “Invest in both old and new, and bridge them with crypto.”

The move also marks an interesting twist in the crypto giant’s relationship with the media company. Binance had sued Forbes for defamation in 2020 for a story on alleged tactics used by the crypto company to evade regulations. The lawsuit was dropped in early 2021.

Two Binance executives, Chief Communications Officer Patrick Hillmann and Bill Chin, head of Binance Labs, the company’s venture capital arm, will join the Forbes board of directors.

The deal is expected to close at the end of the current quarter.

Benjamin Pimentel

Benjamin Pimentel ( @benpimentel) covers crypto and fintech from San Francisco. He has reported on many of the biggest tech stories over the past 20 years for the San Francisco Chronicle, Dow Jones MarketWatch and Business Insider, from the dot-com crash, the rise of cloud computing, social networking and AI to the impact of the Great Recession and the COVID crisis on Silicon Valley and beyond. He can be reached at bpimentel@protocol.com or via Google Voice at (925) 307-9342.

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