Buy crypto with AlinmaPay and your Alinma account

To buy USDT with AlinmaPay or an Alinma Bank account, open the SAR P2P market on Binance, Bybit or OKX, pick a seller whose ad lists Alinma (often under "Bank Transfer"), open the order, send the riyals from your own wallet or account with a blank reference, and mark the order as paid. The seller's coins are already locked in escrow; they are released to you when the seller confirms. It takes minutes, and the only exchange fee on Binance is a flat 0.05 USDT per order.

What makes the Alinma rail worth its own page is not the mechanics, which are shared with every Saudi bank, but three things: Alinma customers have a wallet and an account to choose from, Alinma's positioning as an Islamic bank draws readers who care about the halal question, and almost nothing about Alinma on P2P is documented by the institutions themselves. The general P2P rules (escrow, merchant badges, appeals) are on the P2P hub; this page is only about Alinma.

Two Alinma rails: the wallet and the account

AlinmaPay is a digital wallet operated by Saudi Financial Technology Company, which states on its site that it is licensed by the Saudi Central Bank. It offers domestic and international transfers for individuals and businesses. You open it with a National ID or Iqama and fund it from a bank account or card. For P2P its advantage is the same as any wallet: wallet-to-wallet transfers are instant and the app is on your phone next to the exchange app.

Alinma Bank is a SAMA-supervised commercial bank. A transfer from your Alinma account to a seller's account at Al Rajhi, SNB or any other Saudi bank travels through SARIESARIEThe Saudi Central Bank's interbank transfer system that moves riyals between local banks, with an instant option for retail payments., and a transfer to another Alinma customer stays inside the bank. Limits are set in the banking app and are generally higher than a wallet tier, which is why larger orders usually go through the account rather than the wallet. Neither AlinmaPay nor Alinma Bank publishes a tier or limit table on the pages we checked, so read your own limits in the app before you open an order.

AlinmaPay operator

Saudi Financial Technology Company, licensed by the Saudi Central Bank (per its site)

Alinma Bank

SAMA-supervised commercial bank; transfers to other banks via SARIE

Crypto policy published

None, by either institution

On Binance P2P

Reported on ads by community tests; not on Binance's official SAR list (urpay, Liv. KSA)

Transfer speed

Wallet: near-instant · Account via SARIE instant: seconds to minutes

Exchange fee (Binance)

0.05 USDT flat taker fee per order on USDT pairs

What is documented and what is only reported

We keep these apart on purpose. Documented: AlinmaPay says it is licensed by the Saudi Central Bank; Alinma Bank says it is regulated by the Saudi Central Bank; Binance's SAR P2P market exists and its official payment methods are urpay and Liv. KSA; Binance applies a 0.05 USDT taker fee per order on USDT pairs in the SAR market; no exchange holds a Saudi licence; SAMA-supervised banks and payment providers do not offer crypto services. Reported (community test reports, not institutional pages): that sellers on Binance, Bybit and OKX list Alinma and AlinmaPay among SAR payment methods; that domestic transfers between individuals clear without comment; that sellers reject payments whose sender name does not match the buyer's exchange profile.

Not found anywhere: any Alinma statement permitting or prohibiting crypto-related transfers, any documented case of an Alinma account being frozen for P2P, and any official wallet limit. If someone tells you "Alinma blocks crypto" or "Alinma allows crypto", ask for the page; we could not find one.

The halal angle: why Alinma customers ask

Alinma Bank is known in the Saudi market as an Islamic bank; on the pages we fetched its site states only that it is regulated by the Saudi Central Bank, so treat the Sharia positioning as how the bank presents itself rather than something we verified on a specific page. Many of its customers chose it for that reason and want the same comfort about what they buy. Two things need separating. The rail is just a transfer of riyals from you to another person; nothing about SARIE or a wallet changes the ruling on the asset at the other end. The asset is where scholars differ. Sheikh Abdullah Al-Manea, a member of the Council of Senior Scholars, took a cautious view in 2018; Mufti Faraz Adam of Amanah Advisors holds that many cryptocurrencies can be permissible as assets under conditions. The conditions commonly cited are: no ribaRibaInterest or any return guaranteed on a loan; prohibited in Islamic finance. (so no interest-bearing products), no ghararGhararExcessive uncertainty or gambling-like speculation in a contract. or leverage, a real underlying utility, and spot ownership rather than derivatives.

We do not issue rulings here. If this matters to you, read our halal guide for the positions in detail, and note that Bybit offers an Islamic Account for spot trading certified by ZICO Shariah, which pairs naturally with an Alinma rail on Bybit's SAR P2P. USDT itself, a dollar stablecoinStablecoinA token designed to hold a fixed value against a fiat currency, here one US dollar., is usually treated as a currency-like asset in these discussions, but holding it on a platform that pays yield on it is a separate question.

SARIE instant transfers and what "instant" means here

SARIE is the Saudi Central Bank's interbank system. When you send riyals from Alinma to a seller at another bank, the instant option normally lands in seconds to minutes; secondary reports describe it as usually free for retail customers, though we could not fetch SAMA's fee and limit pages, so take the fee as unconfirmed. The practical consequences for P2P: pick the instant option rather than a scheduled or batch transfer, send the exact amount shown in the order, and do not mark the order as paid until your Alinma app shows the transfer as executed. If the seller banks with Alinma too, the transfer stays in-house and is effectively immediate. With AlinmaPay, a wallet-to-wallet transfer is instant by design, and a wallet-to-bank transfer rides on the same rails as above.

Buying USDT with Alinma, step by step

1. Verify your exchange account

   Binance asks for a government ID and proof of address; Bybit is reported to accept a National ID or Iqama with a selfie. Switch on two-factor authentication before you open P2P.

2. Add Alinma as a payment method

   If "AlinmaPay" or "Alinma" exists in the method list, pick it; otherwise use "Bank Transfer" and enter your Alinma IBAN. Type your name exactly as the bank or wallet shows it in Latin script.

3. Filter sellers and read the ad terms

   Buy → USDT → SAR → filter by Alinma or Bank Transfer. Prefer merchants with a high completion rate. Read the terms; many say "no crypto words in the reference" and "same-name payments only".

4. Open the order and copy the seller's details

   The seller's coins move to escrow and the timer starts. Copy the IBAN or wallet number and the registered name from the order page, never from the chat.

5. Pay from AlinmaPay or the Alinma app

   Exact amount, instant option, reference blank or neutral. From your own account or wallet only.

6. Mark as paid, wait, and appeal if needed

   Tap "Transferred" once the app shows the transfer executed. If the timer expires without release, open an appeal with the transaction screenshot (reference, amount, date, beneficiary). Do not cancel and do not pay again.

Fees and the premium over 3.75

On Binance you pay a flat 0.05 USDT taker fee per order in the SAR market. Bybit's P2P is reported as free for takers. Alinma's own transfer is instant and, per secondary reports, free for retail customers. What you actually pay for is the seller's premiumPremiumThe percentage a P2P seller's USDT price sits above the 3.75 SAR peg; it is the real cost of the route. above the 3.75 SAR peg. Secondary reports describe a small premium in banking hours; we have no live feed, so put the ad price you see into the calculator.

Selling USDT to receive AlinmaPay or an Alinma transfer

Selling works in reverse: you post or accept a buy ad with Alinma as the receiving method, the buyer sends riyals to your wallet or IBAN, and you release only once the money is visible in your AlinmaPay balance or Alinma account statement. Not a screenshot, not a chat message, not an SMS from an unknown sender. Because the rail is instant, waiting a minute costs nothing. For larger or regular sales, the account is the better receiving method because the bank statement gives you a clean record of every inbound transfer, which is exactly what you want if anyone ever asks. Our selling guide compares this with OTC and regional exchanges.

Scams and account hygiene on the Alinma rail

• The stalling seller. Takes your transfer, goes quiet, hopes you cancel so escrow returns to them. Appeal, never cancel.
• "Release first, then I pay." The request is the scam. Escrow exists so you never have to.
• Third-party payments. Paying a seller from a relative's Alinma account, or accepting a buyer's money from a wallet that is not in the buyer's name, violates exchange rules and is the pattern behind most account restrictions. Own account, own name, every time.
• Fake payment proofs. A doctored Alinma transfer screen is easy to make. Only your own app balance or statement counts.
• The reference field. Blank or neutral. Never "USDT", "crypto", "Binance" or "Bybit". This is about not giving a compliance reviewer a reason, not about hiding anything illegal: crypto is not prohibited for individuals, but it is unregulated and no exchange holds a Saudi licence.
• Off-platform deals. A "better rate" on WhatsApp or Telegram means no escrow and no appeal. See the scam guide.

And the risk that applies whatever rail you use: once the riyals become USDT, they sit on a platform with no Saudi licence and no recourse to SAMA or the CMA. Keep only what you are trading on the exchange and move the rest to a wallet you control.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and references

1. AlinmaPay — official site (Saudi Financial Technology Company, licensed by the Saudi Central Bank)
2. Alinma Bank — official site (regulated by the Saudi Central Bank)
3. Saudi Central Bank — official site (SARIE operator)
4. Binance — P2P adds urpay and Liv. KSA as SAR payment methods (29 Apr 2022)
5. Binance — flat 0.05 USDT taker fee on USDT pairs in selected fiat markets
6. Binance Square — P2P safety guide
7. Saudi Central Bank — Standing Committee warning on virtual currencies (2018)
8. Mondaq / Zamakhchary & Co — crypto platforms and fiat rails in Saudi Arabia (Feb 2026)

Related pages

• P2P tradingHow SAR P2P works and how to avoid scams
• Bank transferAl Rajhi, SNB, Riyad Bank and SARIE
• USDT with STC PayBuy Tether with STC Pay (stc bank) via P2P
• Buy with urpayAn official Binance P2P payment method
• Tether (USDT)The P2P settlement coin and its networks