Alipay hadn’t authorized it, but Peer went ahead and added it.
On October 27, Peer announced that its Alipay RMB payment channel had entered beta: buyers send RMB to sellers, and once the payment is verified, an on-chain contract releases USDC into the buyer’s wallet. The nerve of it: the payment option went live first, and the official relationship was only clarified the next day.
On October 28, Alipay drew a clear line: it does not support virtual currency trading or related services, and claims by third-party platforms that users can buy crypto with Alipay are false and unauthorized.
Peer’s response was that buyers pay sellers directly, while Peer uses smart contracts to verify payments and release USDC, and does not hold users’ fiat currency. Its buyer guide also states, “Peer has no official partnership with Alipay.” That’s absurd: one day it advertised Alipay as a payment option, and the next it added a line to its guide saying the two had no partnership—while Alipay publicly said the service was unauthorized.
Peer also claimed that since August 21, 45 buyers had completed 107 orders, totaling about $7,094. Those figures were reported by Peer itself, not confirmed by Alipay.
Who comes off worse? Peer listed Alipay as a payment option first, and Alipay then publicly denied supporting or authorizing it. Saying that “users transfer money directly to one another” doesn’t turn that public promotion into a service endorsed by Alipay.
On October 27, Peer announced that its Alipay RMB payment channel had entered beta: buyers send RMB to sellers, and once the payment is verified, an on-chain contract releases USDC into the buyer’s wallet. The nerve of it: the payment option went live first, and the official relationship was only clarified the next day.
On October 28, Alipay drew a clear line: it does not support virtual currency trading or related services, and claims by third-party platforms that users can buy crypto with Alipay are false and unauthorized.
Peer’s response was that buyers pay sellers directly, while Peer uses smart contracts to verify payments and release USDC, and does not hold users’ fiat currency. Its buyer guide also states, “Peer has no official partnership with Alipay.” That’s absurd: one day it advertised Alipay as a payment option, and the next it added a line to its guide saying the two had no partnership—while Alipay publicly said the service was unauthorized.
Peer also claimed that since August 21, 45 buyers had completed 107 orders, totaling about $7,094. Those figures were reported by Peer itself, not confirmed by Alipay.
Who comes off worse? Peer listed Alipay as a payment option first, and Alipay then publicly denied supporting or authorizing it. Saying that “users transfer money directly to one another” doesn’t turn that public promotion into a service endorsed by Alipay.