GCR

Alipay and WeChat payments, two of the most popular electronic payment methods in China, historically have dominated mainstream payment methods of OTC (over-the-counter) transactions on cryptocurrency exchanges, but that trend has recently undergone tremendous changes. 

Now, WeChat payment has almost disappeared in OTC transactions, while Alipay and bank card payment have become the main methods of OTC transactions on cryptocurrency exchanges. 

According to statistics on April 3, of the 100 USDT OTC transaction services provided by OKEx, only 3 provided WeChat payment methods, while 57 provided Alipay payment and 58 bank card transfer payment. Of the 308 USDT OTC transaction services on Huobi Global, only 27 provided WeChat payment, 147 provided Alipay payment, 185 provided bank card transfer payment. Of the 27 USDT OTC transaction services provided on Binance, there were only 2 WeChat payment channels, 15 Alipay payment, 19 bank card transfer payments outlets.

By calculation, only 7.35% of merchants in the USDT OTC channel of the three major exchanges (OKEx, Huobi Global and Binance) support WeChat payment, while 50.34% of merchants support Alipay payment, and 60.22% support bank card transfer payment.

This may be attributed to the increasing restrictions imposed by WeChat. For example, on the afternoon of October 9, Binance announced that it would launch its P2P transaction service in China. Binance CEO Zhao Changpeng later confirmed on Twitter that he would add WeChat and Alipay payment channels. Just when the entire currency circle thought that Binance had found a legal way to develop domestic OTC business, on the evening of the 10th, Alipay and WeChat issued a statement saying that their payment instruments were prohibited from being used for virtual currency transactions.

WeChat specified this on October 10, 2019: “WeChat Pay does not support virtual currency transactions. If any behavior of using WeChat Pay for virtual currency transactions is found, it will be refunded.”

In this case, it does not seem like Wechat is making a comeback in the cryptocurrency OTC circle.