TRON founder Justin Sun responded by tweeting he would offer $60 a share, compared with Musk’s $54.20.
Elon Musk, the CEO of electric-car maker Tesla (TSLA), offered to buy social media company Twitter (TWTR) for about $41.3 billion in cash.
The $54.20-a-share offer is a 38% premium over the day before Musk’s investment in the company was made public earlier this month, according to a filing with the SEC.
Musk plans to take the company private in order to “go through the changes that need to be made,” he wrote in a text to Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor replicated in the filing.
In late March, Musk criticized the social media platform for failing to adhere to principles of free speech, saying that it serves as “de facto public town square” and this failure therefore undermines democracy.
“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk stated.
Following Musk’s filing, Justin Sun, the founder of the TRON blockchain, tweeted a thread in which he said he would offer $60 a share for the company.
Twitter shares surged more than 12% in pre-market trading following the news. They were trading recently up about 6.4% to just under $49.
Musk took a 9.2% stake in Twitter for an estimated $2.89 billion earlier this month, quickly followed by an announcement that he would be joining the company’s board of directors. However, CEO Parag Agrawal said a few days later that a board position was no longer on the cards.
“My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder,” Musk said according to the filing.
Owing to the Tesla CEO’s well-known interest in cryptocurrency, his announcements often make ripples in the crypto world. Meme-based crypto dogecoin enjoyed an 11% spike following the news of Musk’s initial Twitter investment, and rose about 6% after Thursday’s news. They are currently up 5% over the last 24 hours.
Twitter has also established itself as a crypto-friendly platform over recent months, adding the ability to send tips in bitcoin last September with the facility extended to ether in February.