Chaopeng Zhang, commonly known as CZ, hopes Binance’s stake in Forbes will prompt media companies to take up cryptocurrencies. The world’s largest crypto exchange on Thursday announced a $200 million stake in Forbes Global Media. This makes Binance one of the top two biggest owners of the 104-year-old magazine.
The Binance CEO believes that when crypto companies integrate into the traditional economy, the digital asset industry can no longer be overlooked. CZ said things will get interesting when traditional businesses join the cryptocurrency market. It will boost the perception of the incorporation of crypto into the traditional economy when crypto businesses fund traditional businesses.
CZ said the stake in Forbes can show the magazine and other traditional media outlets to look at cryptocurrency from a whole new level. He hopes the media will write more about crypto and consider taking up bitcoins or a stable coin for subscription fees. CZ adds there are also NFTs and maybe use a token as an incentive.
If the business is ready to go the decentralized way, they can use writers across the world and have the crowd judge them by the amount of fees that they can receive. CZ wants to focus on speeding up the integration of crypto. He revealed that he does not really get involved in Binance’s mergers and acquisitions. About three months ago, the Binance team had brought up the idea of investing in a media company.
Interestingly, the crypto exchange had sued Forbes in 2020 for defamation for reportedly disclosing Binance’s efforts to evade regulators. But the lawsuit was later on dropped.
