On Saturday, it was announced that Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba had an 18.2 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) antitrust fine imposed on it by the State Administration for Market Regulation following an investigation started in December. The record breaking fine was calculated as 4% of its 2019 domestic sales and resulted from Alibaba allegedly requiring merchants on its platform not to participate with its competitors. Today it was announced that Alibaba offshoot Ant Group, known for its dominant Alipay mobile payment app, was told to cease monopolistic practices and become a financial holding company.
There are two potential blockchain and digital currency angles. One relates to the digital yuan, which is currently in late-stage testing and the other is Ant’s blockchain activities. But first, it’s worth exploring how serious the latest salvos are.
For Ant, this is the latest warning shot after its massive IPO was pulled in November last year. We noted months before the scheduled IPO that the government was unhappy, was investigating loan delinquency rates and considering antitrust action.
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