Binance Accepting Fiat Deposits Through AliPay, WeChat

Crypto exchange Binance is accepting fiat deposits via two major Chinese payment gateways – WeChat and AliPay.

First disclosed by a Twitter user on Wednesday, Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao was quick enough to confirm the exchange’s move.

Zhao also detailed that the crypto exchange is not directly working with WeChat and AliPay for the integration of the new payment support.

Some confusion by some news outlets. @Binance is not working directly with WeChat or Alipay. However, users are able to use them in P2P transactions for payment.

Still not a small feat. But words/meaning get twisted as they are passed around. https://t.co/uQ8KmD1TQB

— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) October 9, 2019

Move to capture the Chinese market

Binance’s move to add these two companies is justified as both are mammoths in the Chinese market. Messaging giant WeChat has over 1.1 billion of daily active users, per Statista, while the user count for AliPay, the payments arm of Alibaba, surpasses 900 million.

Earlier this year, both AliPay and WeChat sent legal notice to Binance’s competitor Huobi for using their logo at its payments page without taking explicit permission.

The support was added after Binance launched a peer-to-peer (P2P) platform for trading Bitcoin, Ether, and Tether against the Chinese yuan (CNY). Currently, the P2P service is limited to the Android application users, but the exchange has plans to expand it for iOS and web interface users as well.

The Malta-registered exchange is also considering to open an over-the-counter (OTC) desk to facilitate crypto trading with Chinese fiat.

Meanwhile, Binance is also expanding aggressively in most of the major markets in the world. It recently opened up the registration process on its upcoming fiat-crypto exchange for US-based customers.

It also rolled out a crypto lending service with three digital currencies – USDT, ETC, and BNB – and recently added stalking services to its wallets.