China’s Alipay Eyes to Limit Crypto Transactions on Platform

Alipay, the payments portal part of the Chinese online giant Alibaba, will actively monitor the transactions of users and merchants and the over-the-counter crypto trading.

According to a report of the Beijing News media outlet, Alipay will take all the necessary measures to restrict cryptocurrency-related activities on the platform, particularly those involving key websites and accounts.

"All along, Alipay will refuse services to merchants involved in virtual currency transactions. For personal accounts suspected of virtual currency transactions, depending on the circumstances, we will take measures to limit account withdrawals or even permanently limit withdrawals," a company representative told Beijing News.

In addition to the active monitoring and other potential measures, Alipay will also conduct risk prevention education to users on the platform. It will remind them to “not be deceived by various false propaganda”, recognize the risk of cryptocurrency transactions and avoid risk and financial losses.

Alipay has over 520 million users and holds over 54% of China’s online payments market, but is also present in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, the US and Canada, where it mainly provides payment support for Chinese shoppers who can pay with yuans.

In addition to payments, Alipay supports a host of other services such as food delivery, car hailing, P2P payments. It has also been used by people to make money transfers related to cryptocurrency trading.

Obviously, Alibaba is joining the renewed efforts of the Chinese authorities to curb cryptocurrency transfers and trading in mainland China. Earlier this week, the China National Fintech Risk Rectification Office said it has identified 124 overseas crypto exchanges, the access to which it will block. Several days before that, another major Chinese chat and payment services provider, WeChat, announced it has blocked chat groups and accounts involved in cryptocurrency trading.