Chinese consumers can buy bitcoin using WePay and Alipay
Chinese consumers will soon be able to buy bitcoin on a new trading platform from cryptocurrency exchange Binance by using payment channels WePay and Alipay. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao confirmed this on Wednesday. The payment gateways are currently in testing on Android, and will later also launch on iOS and in the web browser.
The trading itself will be peer-to-peer, and Binance does not have a direct connection with Alipay and WePay. This means that the service provided by Binance is just a platform for people to do business on. The government only allows Chinese citizens to trade peer-to-peer.
However, China banned cryptocurrency exchanges. The People’s Bank of China did this late 2017. Despite the ban Chinese citizens can still buy bitcoin on peer-to-peer platforms and through over-the-counter trading. For example, cryptocurrency exchange OKex and Huobi have an OTC desk to allow trading in Chinese yuan against bitcoin.
Binance moving back into China
Before the cryptocurrency exchange ban of 2017 Binance was located in China. After that the company moved its headquarters to Malta, which has a very blockchain-friendly political climate. On Tuesday Binance launched a new trading platform called P2P Trading. This is the platform Chinese consumers can now use to buy bitcoin on, while paying with popular payment app WePay and Alipay.
After launching P2P Trading the company registered ‘significant trading volumes’. As a result the price of Binance’s in-house BNB token went up with 9.18 percent in the past 24 hours. The token is currently trading for $17.45, while Binance Coin has a market cap of 2.7 billion dollars.
Binance is growing its presence
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is much more than only an exchange. The company has build lots of tools to push the growth of the blockchain sector. Last week Binance became a Super Representative on the Tron blockchain. Earlier this year the company invested in blockchain research stations in Argentina, while they helped with damage control after the Cryptopia hack in January. The company has had its own blockchain since December 2018, and launched its own platform where approved companies can launch their new cryptocurrencies.
Originally published at NEDEROB.
