Binance to Add WeChat and Alipay to Its Fiat Gateway

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, Binance, is set to add WeChat and Alipay to its fiat gateway, The Block reports.

Cryptocurrency exchanges have been banned in the Middle Kingdom since 2017, forcing Chinese citizens to get their crypto fix via peer-to-peer (P2P) and over-the-counter (OTC) trading. By adding WeChat and Alipay channels for fiat on-ramp, Binance users in China can now buy bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Tether (USDT) through the two payment platforms.

That said, Binance and Alipay don’t seem to be singing from the same sheet. An Alipay spokesperson told The Block that the company “closely monitors over-the counter (OTC) transactions to identify irregular behavior and ensure compliance with relevant regulations. If any transactions are identified as being related to bitcoin or other virtual currencies, we immediately stop the relevant payment services.”

WeChat, despite saying that it’ll terminate accounts suspected of crypto trading, was a little more amenable:

“Technically, Binance as a P2P platform itself is NOT integrated with WeChat/Alipay payment, but the vendors or users on the platform accept WeChat/Alipay transaction for crypto trading,” a Binance spokesperson told The Block, adding:

“Binance only provides the onramp for OTC trading by building an intermediary platform on which both the merchants and the users trade freely.”

Photo: Marco Verch Professional Photographer and Speaker / Creative Commons 2.0 license