China's Alipay, WeChat Pay ban virtual currency trading

China's two leading digital payment platforms Alipay and WeChat Pay have made explicit their policies forbidding transactions related to virtual currency trading.

Alipay reiterated Thursday in a statement that it closely monitors over-the-counter transactions to identify irregular behavior and ensure compliance with relevant regulations.

The platform will immediately stop the relevant payment services if any transactions are identified as being related to bitcoin or other virtual currencies, Alipay said.

WeChat Pay also said it does not support virtual currency transactions and has never allowed access of related merchants.

China rolled out a string of regulation measures on virtual currency trading in 2017 and has warned about risks of related transactions.