Alipay, the Chinese mobile payments platform operated by Ant Group and used by more than a billion people, has denied that it supports cryptocurrency trading through outside platforms, issuing the statement roughly one day after peer-to-peer marketplace Peer announced a beta service for buying and selling USDC — a US dollar stablecoin issued by Circle — with Chinese yuan through Alipay.

Peer unveiled the feature on October 27, announcing the launch in a post on X. According to the company, buyers could pay a seller in yuan through Alipay and receive USDC in return, while sellers could swap the stablecoin for yuan. Alipay responded on October 28 with a statement saying the company does not authorize virtual currency transactions or related services on its payment network.

Alipay is live on Peer in Beta

Buy USDC by paying a seller in CNY, or sell USDC and get paid in CNY on Alipay.

Guides and support in Chinese live on @Peer_zh. pic.twitter.com/rzilnjmsUU

— Peer (@peerxyz) October 27, 2026

In the post, Peer promoted the integration as a way to buy or sell USDC using CNY payments through Alipay, with guides and customer support offered in Chinese.

How Peer’s USDC Service Works

Peer described the Alipay payment option as live in beta and directed users to its dedicated Chinese-language account on X, @Peer_zh, for instructions and customer support.

Under the setup, a buyer sends yuan directly to another user through Alipay. Once the seller confirms the payment, Peer handles the delivery of the USDC. The platform relies on an onchain escrow system: the seller first deposits USDC into a smart contract, and the contract releases the coins to the buyer’s wallet after the yuan payment is verified. The buyer’s yuan payment goes straight to the seller, with the smart contract securing the stablecoin side of each deal.

That structure keeps the two legs of every trade apart: the stablecoin moves through Peer’s smart contract, while the yuan travels directly between users on Alipay’s payment network. This split is where the two companies’ positions diverge — Peer frames the transfers as ordinary payments directed by individual users, while Alipay maintains that virtual currency transactions are not authorized on its platform.

Alipay does not issue USDC or run an exchange under this arrangement. However, its service would still carry the yuan side of each trade. Peer later said it has no formal partnership with Alipay, describing the system as payments directed by individual users rather than an official link with the payments company.

Peer said the arrangement had been running since August 21, meaning it operated for more than two months before Alipay issued its denial. In that time, Peer reported 107 completed trades involving 45 buyers, with a total volume of about $7,094. That works out to roughly $66.30 per trade. The figures come from Peer and have not been published by Alipay. The dollar amounts are modest, but the promotion’s use of Alipay’s name placed the service directly against China’s long-standing restrictions on crypto payments.

China’s Rules on Crypto Payments

China has restricted cryptocurrency transactions for years, and payment companies have been explicitly barred from providing services to crypto-related activities since regulators banned virtual currency trading and mining nationwide in 2021. Alipay has previously set up monitoring to find and limit accounts used for over-the-counter crypto trading on its network.

In February 2026, the People’s Bank of China and seven other government departments issued updated crypto rules. The rules classified crypto trading, fiat-to-crypto exchanges, and related services as banned financial activities. They covered Bitcoin, Ether, and stablecoins, and authorities said cryptocurrencies are not legal money and cannot circulate as currency in China.

In June, the central bank outlined new anti-money laundering steps targeting virtual currency trades, underground banking networks, and cross-border financial crime.

In its October 28 statement, Alipay said, “Claims that Alipay enables crypto purchases on third-party platforms are false and unauthorized.” The company urged customers to protect their funds and accounts. It also warned users to be careful when outside platforms advertise crypto purchases using Alipay. The episode underlines the gap between onchain peer-to-peer designs and the offchain payment rails they rely on: smart contracts can secure the stablecoin side of a trade, but the yuan side still moves through a payment network that operates under China’s rules.

Source: Blockonomi