Some of Alipay’s mainland Chinese users saw ads inviting them to invest up to $137 daily in a fund with indirect exposure to a US spot Bitcoin ETF and Coinbase.
Alipay, China’s largest payment platform with more than 1 billion users, reportedly featured Bitcoin and cryptocurrency-related ads for users in mainland China.
Many mainland Chinese users saw promotional advertisements related to spot Bitcoin BTC$101,101 exchange-traded funds (ETF) on their Alipay homepages, local news agency Sina Finance reported on Dec. 12.
The advertisement promoted crypto investments, saying: “Global investment, cryptocurrency soaring, 10 yuan minimum investment, get on board now.”
The ad referred users to Huabao Overseas Technology C (QDII-FOF-LOF), which reportedly has indirect exposure to Coinbase stock and the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF.
$140 daily purchase limit
Colin Wu, a prominent local market observer, said on X that mainland China users are currently limited to purchasing a maximum of 1,000 Chinese yuan ($137) of the fund’s shares daily. The minimum investment is 10 yuan, or $1.40.
“It indirectly invested in Coinbase stock and Ark spot Bitcoin ETF by investing in Wood Sister’s fund. In addition, Huabao Technology and many similar QDIIs advertise cryptocurrency on Alipay,” Wu noted in another post on X.
The first reports on Alipay featuring crypto-related ads surfaced on Dec. 11, with local blockchain outlet ChainCatcher breaking the news, citing community reports.
Some users confirmed they had seen the crypto ads on Alipay, predicting that “the next step is to buy Bitcoin directly with Alipay.”
US Bitcoin ETFs in mainland China “aren’t surprising”
According to Yifan He, CEO of major Chinese blockchain firm Red Date Technology, Alipay’s parent firm, Ant Financial Services Group, does offer some US ETF trading services.
“So allowing the Bitcoin ETF would not surprise me,” He told , adding that buying and selling all go through Ant Group in Chinese yuan.
“As long as people can’t move yuan out of the country illegally, the regulators won’t treat it as a huge risk and problem,” he added.
He suggested that the recent crypto ads on Alipay are not a direct Ant offering, but rather ads published as some “third party found some loopholes.”
“It doesn’t mean anything. They will disappear soon,” he said.
Alipay banned all Bitcoin-related transactions in 2019
Alipay officially banned any Bitcoin-related transactions on its platform in 2019, highlighting its anti-crypto stance in alignment with the unfriendly crypto agenda of the Chinese government.
Initially hosting major global crypto trading platforms like China-born Binance, Huobi and OKX (formerly OKEx), mainland China banned crypto exchanges in 2017.
The Chinese government has maintained its anti-crypto, enforcing an interdepartmental crackdown on crypto in 2021. Despite the ban, China’s authorities have repeatedly declared that crypto assets are legal properties protected by law.
Amid the ongoing bull market of 2024, some industry figures, including Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz, highlighted rumors that China was “likely to unban” Bitcoin in July. Still, the community was mostly skeptical.
Bloomberg data analyst Jack Wang said in April that Hong Kong’s crypto exchange-traded funds would not be available for mainland China investors.
Still, in November, Hangzhou-based crypto mining-chip designer Nano Labs started accepting Bitcoin as payment for its goods and services through a business account on Coinbase.
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