Alipay has publicly denied that it supports cryptocurrency trading through third-party platforms, warning users to monitor their accounts and funds closely. The statement, posted on social media in both Chinese and English on October 28, 2026, was aimed at reaching an audience beyond China.
What Alipay said
Alipay said that third-party platforms advertising crypto purchases through its services are making unauthorized claims. The company framed the denial as a consumer protection warning, stating that users who follow these platforms could put their accounts and funds at risk.
Peer’s USDC feature
The statement came a day after peer-to-peer platform Peer announced a beta feature allowing users to buy and sell USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin, with payments settled in Chinese yuan through Alipay. According to Peer, the feature had been live since August 21, 2026, and over that period it reported 107 transactions totaling approximately $7,094 across 45 buyers.
Peer did not claim an official partnership with Alipay. The platform said there is no formal relationship with Alipay and described its service as a user-driven setup that relies on Alipay without any integration or authorization from the payment company.
A familiar stance
Alipay has a long-standing policy of blocking crypto activity, in line with China’s strict regulations against such transactions. It has run monitoring systems built to detect and shut down crypto-related activity since at least 2021. The company has issued similar denials before, rejecting associations with crypto in 2019 and again in 2024.
Implications for users and P2P platforms
Alipay’s warning about account and fund risks implies that users routing crypto trades through its rails could face consequences from the platform. Given that Alipay has monitoring tools aimed at crypto activity, users who rely on setups like Peer’s are operating in territory the company actively watches.
Peer’s framing stresses that users, not the platform, are making the Alipay payments. That distinction may matter legally or reputationally, but it does little to shield individual accounts from Alipay’s enforcement tools.
Alipay’s quick public response, issued within a day of Peer’s announcement, suggests it intends to keep doing exactly that. The relatively small volume involved—107 transactions across 45 buyers in roughly two months—also offers a clue about scale, indicating limited demand for this particular route.
