The payments affiliate of Alibaba, Ant Financial Services Group (previously known as Alipay), is working closely with Chinese regulators to proceed with increased vigilance when it comes to cryptocurrency trading being conducted across the Alipay mobile app.
A media outlet administrated by the Communist Party, Beijing News, reported on the 24th Agust that Ant Financial will be stepping up its measures in place to keep an eye on the accounts of both merchants and customers along with noteworthy sites that utilise the Alipay gateway to carry out OTC (over the counter) crypto trading.
A representative of Ant Financial was quoted saying that “Alipay adhered to the principle of not providing services for virtual currency transactions”. The representative further added:
“We have been and will continue to closely monitor over-the-counter trading activities. If we find any transactions that we suspect are related to virtual currencies, we take appropriate measures including, but not limited to suspension of related fund transfers and permanently restricting payment collection functions of accounts involved.”
Although the company has acknowledged that they plan to swiftly respond to suspending or permanently restricting functions of accounts involved in trading cryptocurrencies, they have as of now not disclosed any details about accounts that have been found running afoul of the restriction on cryptocurrency trading.
This comes two days after we reported that Chinese regulators had restricted accounts disseminating news and information related to cryptocurrency on WeChat. Last September a ban was imposed by Chinese authorities that restricted the unregulated method of raising funds via ICOs.
Following this ban, many of the notable exchanges within China have moved their operations overseas, however, they have still continued to offer crypto-to-fiat OTC trading. Chinese residents have been about to purchase cryptocurrency assets using Alipay, WeChat Pay and bank transfers.
