LISBON: Twitter could in future be more integrated into the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain, billionaire Twitter investor Changpeng Zhao said on Wednesday.

Zhao, who runs Binance, one of the world’s biggest crypto companies, had been keen to stress in earlier interviews that he was happy to let Tesla boss Elon Musk do what he wanted with the social media platform.

But on Wednesday Zhao, who backed Musk to the tune of $500 million, told a news conference at the Web Summit tech conference in Lisbon that he may after all be keen to play a part in Twitter’s future.

“We want to be very supportive on anything that Twitter does with crypto and web3,” he said, referring to a notional future version of the web that would have crypto and blockchain at its heart.

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“Let’s give Elon some time to get adjusted. He has a lot of people to fire, a lot of things to change. Let’s give him some time to settle in. And then we’ll see how we can help.”

Zhao admitted he had never met Musk but that he would like to, and said if he were offered a place on the board he would be “indifferent” but would probably do it “as a favour”.

According to text messages submitted into court during Musk’s legal battle with Twitter’s former bosses, the Tesla and SpaceX chief dismissed the idea of a blockchain-based Twitter as unworkable.