Beijing: As the Chinese Government is continuing its crackdown on crypto transactions and cryptocurrencies, mobile payments giants of China WeChat Pay and AliPay have also barred crypto transactions on their platforms.
This move will likely make it even harder for cryptocurrency zealots to trade Bitcoin and its denomination in China.
Both the payments providers, WeChat Pay and AliPay will be monitoring their respective platforms for the transactions related to cryptocurrencies. WeChat, developed by Tencent already informed on Friday that any users sending funds related to digital currencies on its social media platform will be prohibited.
Alibaba backed, Ant Financial also released a statement saying that accounts related to crypto transactions have been restricted on its payments platforms for a while now. It is been said that AliPay has almost 520 million users whereas WeChat has about 1 billion monthly active users.
A spokesperson from Ant Financial said in the statement that Principle of AliPay has always been clear that it will not provide services to digital currency transactions. He further said, “Over-the-counter trading activities will be monitored closely on daily basis. If any doubtful crypto-related transactions are found out, appropriate action will be taken immediately. In this course, the fund transfer functionality might be suspended of any AliPay accounts used by companies for crypto transactions. Though this will not be the only action but one of the actions that might be taken against the crypto transactions.”
Related: More than 120 Offshore Crypto Exchanges Blocked by Chinese Authorities
As a move to crackdown cryptocurrencies, Chinese Government already blocked around 120 offshore crypto exchanges and initial coin offerings (ICOs). As per the reports of media, further, it is looking to block foreign exchanges which are using the Great Firewall of China.
Despite all the restrictions, there is a window open for the investors to purchase digital currency through over-the-counter methods. However, officials are doubtful about that trading loophole.
A cautioning was given by the Chinese Authorities which included the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, earlier this week, about the fundraising scams which claimed to be developing a blockchain project. Many WeChat groups were also blocked that discussed newer cryptocurrencies.
