WeChat, Alipay to Block Crypto Transactions on Payment Platforms

Chinese mobile payment platforms WeChat Pay and Alipay are scrambling to keep up with regulators after recent announcements regarding initial coin offerings (ICOs) and cryptocurrencies.

Both payment giants have said that they will work with the government agencies closely to monitor cryptocurrency transactions, according to news releases on August 24.

As CoinDesk reported on Friday, five high-level regulatory agencies in China – including the People's Bank of China and the Banking Regulatory Commission – issued a warning against any cryptocurrency-related fundraising and trading activities.

In a release published by Tencent, the parent company of WeChat Pay, not long after the news came out, the company said that it has come up with three main measures to regulate any "problematic" platforms related to ICOs and cryptocurrencies.

Specifically, the tech giant said that it will prohibit users from using WeChat payments to make any virtual currency-related transactions. Moreover, it will conduct both real-time monitoring of daily transactions and risk assessment of any suspicious transactions.

At the same time, in an exclusive interview with BJ News, a local news outlet based in Beijing, Alibaba Group affiliate Ant Financial, which owns Alipay, said that depending on the situation, it will restrict or permanently ban any personal Alipay accounts that are involved in cryptocurrency transactions.

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