Wirex Launches Travel Booking Platform Enabling Payments in Bitcoin and USDT

Web3 money app Wirex said Thursday (March 27) that it launched a travel booking platform that offers reduced rates on hotel stays and cash-back rewards

Web3 money app Wirex said Thursday (March 27) that it has launched a travel booking platform offering reduced rates on hotel stays and cash-back rewards when using a Wirex card.

The new platform, Wirex Travel, also offers exclusive deals and allows users to pay with bitcoin, USDT or traditional currencies, the company said in a statement.

These new offerings join the benefits Wirex already provides to travelers, including zero foreign exchange fees, interbank exchange rates and crypto rewards, according to the statement.

“With Wirex Travel, we’re helping users unlock incredible hotel deals while earning generous rewards when they pay with their Wirex card,” said Wirex Co-founder Pavel Matveev.

Wirex’s digital payments platform, which enables users to store, purchase and exchange multiple currencies, has over 6 million customers in 130 countries, the company said.

The potential of blockchain technology to address the current inefficiencies that plague cross-border payments, such as high fees, slow settlement times and poor transparency, by streamlining processes and reducing costs is evident, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence, Solana and Solana Foundation collaboration, “Can Blockchain Solve the Cross-Border Payments Puzzle?”

The report found that private decentralized finance could lower transaction costs by up to 80% compared to traditional methods, automated recordkeeping and smart contracts could enhance transparency and efficiency, and stablecoins, pegged to fiat currency, could mitigate volatility concerns.

Wirex launched its decentralized payment method, Wirex Pay, in August, enabling users to make transactions using cryptocurrencies at more than 80 million merchants in over 200 countries.

In December, the company added two new stablecoins — VNX Euro (VEUR) and VNX Swiss Franc (VCHF) — to its digital payments platform, enabling users to spend these currencies directly through their Wirex cards.

“This addition allows our users to effortlessly spend stablecoins in real life, whether for daily purchases, remittances or managing their digital assets,” Matveev said at the time. “At Wirex, our goal is to make digital currencies as convenient and versatile as traditional money, and VEUR and VCHF are another step toward achieving that vision.”