A South Korean travel website with over 50,000 hotels and other types of accommodation facilities will begin accepting 12 cryptocurrencies, thanks to a partnership between its operator and Bithumb, a major cryptocurrency exchange in Korea.
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Pay for 50,000+ Hotels with Crypto
One of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Bithumb, announced on Tuesday its business alliance with Seoul-based With Innovation Corp. Thanks to this partnership, customers will be able to pay with cryptocurrencies for over 50,000 accommodation facilities, including hotels, motels, inns, motels, guest houses, and campers. Specializing in small and medium-sized accommodation facilities, the service operates under the brand name that is loosely translated as “How are you here?” The Hankyoreh elaborated:
The user can pay in a virtual currency held in their Bithumb account when booking a hotel, resort, or motel. There are about 50,000 registered properties here [in Korea].
At the time of this writing, Bithumb is the fifth largest crypto exchange globally by 24-hour trading volume and the second largest in South Korea. The Kakao Corp-backed Upbit is currently the country’s largest crypto exchange.
12 Cryptocurrencies Supported
Bithumb explained that all 12 cryptocurrencies the platform supports can be used: bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ripple, ether, ethereum classic, EOS, qtum, monero, litecoin, zcash, bitcoin gold, and dash. The news outlet quoted the exchange commenting:
We expect that virtual currencies will be used to make reservations and payments for domestic and international travelers, which will be of great help in increasing convenience.
Customers can book a room using With Innovation apps and pay their bills with any of the cryptocurrencies they have in their Bithumb accounts, Zdnet Korea explained, adding that the apps have “about 2 million monthly net users.” Available in both Android and iOS, the app in the Google Play store has over 41,000 ratings, averaging 4.4 stars. Meanwhile, iTunes store gave it a 4.7-star rating on average, by about 5,700 users.
“The service will be introduced in the first half of this year,” Yonhap quoted Bithumb, emphasizing that it will start “as soon as possible.” The exchange added that it is “constantly discussing with various companies” in order to expand usage of cryptocurrencies in Korea. Bithumb was further quoted by Green Economy:
Our country has become a part of the global trend of spreading cryptocurrencies through the partnership with Korea’s largest accommodation app.
What do you think of Bithumb’s partnership to allow customers to pay for 50,000+ hotels in cryptocurrencies? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Bithumb.
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