WeChat Bans Cryptocurrency Transactions In Their Payments Policy

Back in 2018, Chinese authorities banned crypto media via WeChat in China. Recently, they have gone one step up, and banned cryptocurrency transactions in their payments policy.

That’s right, the Chinese media giant has decided to ban all cryptocurrency transactions in its payments policy, as confirmed by Dovey Wan, founding partner of crypto investment firm Primitive.

Urgh, Wechat just updated its payment policy .. merchant can’t serve any token issuance/fund raising or crypto trading activities, otherwise account will be terminated

Given most OTC transactions are happening in wechat, this may impact local liquidity to quite some extent pic.twitter.com/TdNIO6cggS

— Dovey Wan 🗝 🦖 (@DoveyWan) May 7, 2019

It’s no secret that China has done all in its power to clamp down on any crypto related activity in the country, be it in the form of stringent regulations or through surveillance. We had previously reported that China Deems ICOs & STOs as Illegal, and that itself is a solid indicator of China’s strict anti-crypto stance.

The updated policy is expected to come into effect on May 31. It stated that “merchants may not engage in illegal transactions such as virtual currency,” the sale of pornography, issuance of tokens, or online gambling. As a conservative country, China has cultivated a strict culture of surveillance in the nation, clamping down hard on any sort of individual freedom that does not align with the state’s interests.

Commenting on the issues, Changpeng Zhao, founder and CEO of major cryptocurrency exchange Binance, popularly known as CZ, has said that he believes the restrictions have been imposed on the company by the government. He explained:

“It is inconvenient for people short term, and they take a hit. But long term, it is precisely this type of restriction of freedom that will push people to use crypto. Not a bad thing.”

He claimed that this is “a classic example of short term pain, long term gain.” On the other hand, Wan said that “this may impact local liquidity to quite some extent,” considering most of the over-the-counter transactions are happening in WeChat

WeChat has been a trusted payment service provider. It offers an excellent user experience, as claimed by CZ. However, this recent ban will understandably lead to a nation wide outcry of crypto traders who have been using the platform for transactions.