The Chinese giant Alipay has officially announced the ban on Bitcoin and other crypto-related transactions. Such a stern update from Alipay comes in a wake of Binance CEO’s comment to a tweet that inquired if Binance is accepting funds via AliPay.
On October 09, 2019, a Twitter user asked “Is Binance now accepting fiat on-ramp with Alipay and Wechat Pay”. As a response, Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ) quickly confirmed “YES”, however, Alipay fired back, writing “No, you cannot”.
What seems to be the most exciting news for the Chinese crypto community – has turned out to be just a nightmare. Alipay officially stated that it will closely monitor all transactions and if any transactions are related to bitcoin or virtual currencies, it “immediately stops the relevant payment services”.
There’re several reports about Alipay being used for bitcoin transactions. To reiterate, Alipay closely monitors over-the-counter transactions to identify irregular behavior and ensure compliance with relevant regulations, Alipay wrote on Twitter. If any transactions are identified as being related to bitcoin or other virtual currencies, @Alipay immediately stops the relevant payment services. Alipay tweeted
Alipay and WeChat are state-owned payment platforms and must obey the rules of the country. This all comes during a time when China is said to be developing its own cryptocurrency. As per the reports, the new Chinese digital currency is intended to challenge Bitcoin and the other private cryptocurrencies such as Libra.
WeChat Pay Followed Suit
Binance is a peer-to-peer crypto trading platform where users are able to deposit, buy and sell cryptocurrencies through various channels. At present, neither CEO CZ nor the exchange responded back to Alipay’s tweet. But importantly, Chinese users might still be able to use Alipay since the platform operates as a P2P exchange. Not to forget, users have to be self-responsible for any consequences they may incur if they choose to take this route.
On the other hand, famous crypto influencer Dovey Wan states that the Chinese local police are strongly scrutinizing bitcoin and crypto transactions – she took to Twitter and affirms that “Starting from Aug, China OTC market has been slowing down quite a bit due to various actions taken by both payment channels and local police”. Wan shared a screenshot of the official announcement of Alipay posted on the Weibo account.
According to her Twitter threat, the move was followed by Wechat pay as well.
“We welcome any whistleblower to report such behavior”, Wechat mentioned in its official announcement
Image Source – Flickr
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