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Alipay has declared that it will be banning any transactions related to any cryptocurrencies. This follow's Binance's announcement that it is accepting fiat currencies through Alipay and WeChat, although the exchange is not working directly with WeChat or Alipay.

WorldRemit has announced a partnership with Alipay, enabling consumers to use the WorldRemit app or website for cross-border remittances to the Alipay app. The international money transfer service to the Alipay app is now available from over 40 countries.

AntGroup's Alipay added a feature that permits its users to transfer sums to WeChat users, bridging the two Chinese digital payments providers.  To perform a transfer, Alipay users first need to select the payment amount they would like to transfer. After that, the app generates a QR code that can be shared with counterparties via WeChat, QQ, Sina Weibo, or DingDing. The move follows the launch of anti-trust measures by the Chinese central government targeting the two payment platforms, as well as practices such as exclusive agreements with vendors and the use of big data to engage in discriminatory pricing.

Travelers from several countries in Asia and Europe can now use their mobile payment apps to pay at over 875,000 merchants across Nepal. This is enabled by a partnership between Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL) and Ant International, the operator of Alipay+. The collaboration, allows users of Alipay+ to make payments by scanning NEPALPAY QR codes. Supported payment apps include Alipay (China), AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR), MPay (Macao SAR), Touch 'n Go eWallet and MyPB (Malaysia), GCash (Philippines), Naver Pay and Toss Pay (South Korea), TrueMoney (Thailand), Hipay (Mongolia), Tinaba (Italy), Changi Pay, and OCBC Digital (Singapore).

Barclaycard, which processes nearly half of the UK's credit and debit card transactions, has partnered with Alipay to allow retailers to accept Alipay transactions in stores across the UK.

British online money transfer service TransferWise is partnering with Alipay to enable instant transfers to China using 17 currencies.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) summoned Alipay and several major domestic to reiterate its prohibition on the provision of services linked to trading of virtual currencies, such as providing payment channels for crypto exchanges and over-the-counter platforms. Shortly after the PBOC's statement, the ICBC, ABC, CBC and AliPay all issued a similar notice, stating that if any users were found dealing with crypto transactions, they would terminate the relevant customer accounts and would report the issue to the relevant authorities. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/RYyyxezUMkhWGgZF72-5lQ

Foreign visitors in China finally will be able to use Alipay to pay for goods and services, marking the first time Alibaba is opening up access to its e-wallet outside its user population. Previously available only to consumers with a Chinese bank account and local mobile number, an international version of Alipay can be downloaded and used in mainland China over a 90-day period.

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) and Ant International have reportedly launched cross-border QR code payments. The payments will occur between NBC's Bakong payment system and Ant International's Alipay+ cross-border mobile payments and digital solutions platform. This will allow users of 12 international payment apps, including Alipay, AlipayHK, Touch 'n Go eWallet, GCash, Kakao Pay, and others, to make seamless payments to merchants in Cambodia by scanning KHQR codes. This will support payments in Cambodian riels. In September 2024, the NBC and Bank Negara Malaysia launched a similar scheme for payments between Cambodia and Malaysia.

Binance is set to add two more channels to its fiat gateway - WeChat and Alipay, allowing users in China to buy bitcoin with the two payment options.

"Alipay, Ant Group's third-party mobile payments platform, said it has achieved nationwide interoperability of QR payment codes with China UnionPay to meet regulatory requirements on interconnection and interoperability."

"Ant Financial, parent company of Chinese mobile wallet giant Alipay, recently announced several initiatives to accelerate Alipay's global merchant acceptance network expansion, as well as the launch of its own services."

The People's Bank of China (PBOC's) main motivation for issuing a digital renminbi is to create a government-controlled alternative to two very large and loosely regulated digital payment platforms, Alipay and WeChat Pay. The ubiquity of Alipay and WeChat Pay raises the specter of the Chinese authorities losing control of payment flows through the economy. The American government has no analogous worries that justify the Fed issuing a digital dollar.

The digital yuan is entering an already very crowded payments market in China, with smartphone apps WeChat Pay and Alipay already dominating the electronic payments sector. Businesses reported minimal differences in processing payments with the e-yuan compared to existing mobile payment products, although they did note that it does not cost them an additional service free unlike both WeChat Pay and Alipay. Also, payments via the digital yuan can be made without connecting to the internet.

China's State Council Information Office, prompted by the Peoples's Bank of China (PBOC), is reportedly looking at whether to launch an anti-trust probe into Alipay and WeChat Pay, The State Council's antitrust committee has been gathering information on them for more than a month. But authorities have been keen to whittle back their dominance. Also, in an effort to encourage smaller players to enter the market, the PBOC said last year that it planned to standardize the interoperability of QR code payments.

The new Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) e-CNY app has scored a 4.4 out of 5 in China's Apple App Store, and Richard Turrin, in his review, concurs. If the e-CNY is going to be accepted it's got to bring something to the table in addition to what's offered by Alipay and WeChat Pay, and Richard runs through the major new features that will be important enough that they'll get some to change. These include: -Unlimited spending limits for e-CNY wallets that fulfill the highest level of know-your-customer (KYC), versus Alipay personal accounts that top out around RMB 20,000 (about $3,000). -The ability to set spending limits not just on the entire account but on all of the sub-wallets, a money management feature that the other payment platforms don't have. -Payments of less than RMB 2000 ($300) are anonymous! There is no equivalent for the other payment platforms or even western credit cards.

Ant Financial has quietly conducted a small-scale limited-time test of digital yuan via its AliPay mobile payment app in two tea stores at a shopping mall next to its Shanghai headquarters. This is the first known instance where China's digital yuan was tested inside a mobile app that's developed by a non-state-owned entity.

WeChat has reportedly added China's central bank digital currency (CBDC) to some of its payment services, following rival Alipay in offering support for the digital yuan since December 2022. WeChat Pay now allows digital yuan payments on certain apps, such as ordering food from McDonald's and paying bills. Direct CBDC transactions between WeChat users are expected to follow.

Xie Ping, a former People's Bank of China (PBOC) research director, made critical public comments about China's central bank digital currency (CBDC) at a recent university conference. After launching in 2020, e-CNY transactions hit $88 billion yuan ($12 billion) at the end of 2021, after which growth slowed down significantly, only crossing the $100 billion yuan threshold at the end of August 2022. Ping said existing digital retail payment platforms such as AliPay and WeChat Pay "have formed a payment market structure that have met needs for daily consumption". Hence,  the e-CNY use case needs to expand from its current use as a cash substitute and opened to other uses such as the ability to pay for financial products or connected to more payment platforms to boost adoption. https://finance.caixin.com/2022-12-28/101982996.html

A new initiative plans to make six of Europe's smartphone wallets interoperable with each other, creating a total network of 5 million users in 10 European countries. Notably, they are working with Chinese fintech giant Alipay to develop a unified QR code.