Chinese messaging giant WeChat bans crypto transactions

According to the company's updated payment policy, merchants and users who engage in crypto trading will have their accounts terminated from the platform.

WeChat, the largest messaging and social media platform in China operated by Tencent, has quietly updated its payments policy and effectively banned over-the-counter cryptocurrency trading on the platform.

Despite being introduced a week ago, the update gained traction when Dovey Wan, founding partner of crypto investment firm Primitive, tweeted the news on May 7th. Wan noted that the new policy could have an adverse effect on local liquidity, as a large portion of OTC transactions in China happens on WeChat.

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

The crypto community was very critical of the update, saying it was another sign of the Chinese government tightening its grip over the crypto market in the country.

It's worth noting that the new payment policy only applies to merchants on WeChat Pay, the messaging app's payments service.

While many WeChat users weren't happy about the new policy, Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, saw it as a positive development for the crypto industry.

He also noted that if there weren't so many restrictions forced upon the company, WeChat would be hard to beat when it comes to facilitating crypto payments.

Honestly, it would be hard to beat WeChat pay if they are relatively open.

It's highly unlikely that WeChat will suffer any loss to its 1 billion-strong user base.