Cryptocurrency travel platform Travala.com saw the number of rooms booked through its platform grow sharply after a recent integration with booking giant Expedia. According to Travala.com CEO Juan Otero, the firm’s booking revenue increased by 75% in the two weeks after partnering with Expedia. The overall number of bookings grew by 68% over the same period. Otero explained that the portion of bookings paid for with crypto assets has also sharply increased: “We’re also seeing a sharp increase in the number of bookings paid with cryptocurrencies, particularly in the native AVA token as the preferred crypto payment option after Bitcoin. …

Expedia now allows its over 700,000 accommodations to be booked with cryptocurrency through crypto travel platform Travala.com. According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph by Travala.com on July 6, the firm added over 700,000 accommodations to its crypto-powered travel platform’s already over 2 million options available in 230 countries. Senior Vice President at Expedia Group Alfonso Paredes said that the company aims to scale up Travala.com’s business faster than it did expand so far. Furthermore, he said that the firm also recognizes innovation and the importance of allowing users to choose their preferred payment method. This is the result of …

SIA, a European payment services business, and U.K.-based technology company Quant Network successfully tested cross-blockchain interoperability between different protocols, SIA said. SIA and Quant Network first announced their partnership on June 5. Their aim is to work on cross-platform applications and services for banks and financial institutions. The partnership aims to integrate Quant Network’s blockchain operating system Overledger into SIA’s SIAchain infrastructure and enable interoperability. It hopes to bring solutions to challenges that financial institutions are facing with blockchain integration. Both firms were able to integrate Overledger technology within SIAchain and bridge permissioned blockchain activities. SIA said this allows for …

Western Union might be purchasing cross-border payments company MoneyGram. According to a June 1 article on Bloomberg, the payments giant recently made a takeover offer for MoneyGram. If successful, this would combine the two of the biggest money-transfer companies in the United States. Ups and downs during pandemic Lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders in response to the coronavirus have closed many businesses across the U.S., including local branches of MoneyGram. The number of digital transactions have risen as people stay at home, but they accounted for just 18% of its money transfers in the first quarter, according to Bloomberg. Despite partnering …

U.S. crypto exchange Gemini has partnered with technology giant Samsung Electronics for wallet integration. The partnership means U.S. and Canadian customers can use the Samsung Blockchain Wallet in conjunction with Gemini's mobile application, a statement provided to Cointelegraph said. The first U.S. crypto partnership The partnership is reportedly the first of its kind. "Gemini is the first U.S. crypto exchange and custodian to partner with Samsung," the statement said. Cointelegraph reached out to Samsung to confirm details of the partnership, but did not receive a response as of press time. This article will be updated as necessary, pending a response. …

Atari has partnered with blockchain-as-a-service, or BaaS, company Arkane Network, allowing digital asset integration into gaming. A key aspect of the announcement sees developers able to build Atari's Token into aspects of the gaming sphere, said a May 14 statement provided to Cointelegraph. Atari making waves in crypto Atari has headlined multiple articles so far in 2020. The age-old gaming giant announced a token offering in March. In addition to Atari Token, the company's plans also include a multi-faceted decentralized entertainment platform spanning movies, games, and music. The May 14 development harnesses Arkane Network — a blockchain brick and mortar …

During an earnings call for Q1 2020, MoneyGram chairman and chief executive, Alexander Holmes, revealed that it was a “quiet quarter” regarding the firm’s partnership with blockchain payments company Ripple (XRP). Ripple first announced its “strategic partnership” with the Nasdaq-listed money transfer company during June 2019. The partnership’s initial term was set at two years, with Ripple providing a capital commitment of up to $50 million over 24 months in exchange equity. The announcement was also slated to see Ripple act as MoneyGram’s “key partner for cross-border payment and foreign exchange settlement using digital assets.” Ripple Partnership ‘Quiet’ During Q1 …

In a fresh move to revive Facebook-backed digital currency project Libra, the Libra Association has onboarded another member. British payment startup Checkout.com has joined the Libra Association, becoming the 24th member engaged with the mission of building a better global payment network, Libra tweeted on April 28. Tech advancements would fail without necessary regulatory frameworks Guillaume Pousaz, Checkout.com founder and CEO, officially announced the news in a company statement on Tuesday. The executive outlined that Checkout.com joins Libra’s efforts to not only promote technological advancement but contribute to the formation of necessary regulatory framework to drive mass adoption of better …

After decentralized finance, or DeFi, markets collapsed in late March 2020, a number of industry players joined forces to support emerging fintech. Today, the Ren Alliance, a new DeFi consortium backed by veteran crypto investor, Polychain Capital, has added another batch of new members. The group’s membership has now surpassed 50 companies in total. Launched in early March 2020 by DeFi project Ren, the Ren Alliance has added 14 new members, expanding the network up to 51 firms, the firm announced to Cointelegraph on April 16. The new entrants include major decentralized exchange, IDEX, Switcheo, Dex.Blue, 1inch, Jarvis Network, Charged …

Amid the global pandemic crisis, the importance of ensuring trusted information is getting more crucial as fake coronavirus news poses a direct threat to life and health of people worldwide. While some global jurisdictions are imposing fines and imprisonment for spreading false coronavirus information, a major news agency in Italy is hoping to stop fake news by implementing blockchain technology. All the news that’s fit to hash ANSA, Italy’s main news agency and an international publication owned by 24 national newspapers, has launched a news tracking system based on blockchain to bring more trust between the company and its readers. …

Refereum, a blockchain-based platform that rewards users for video game engagement and streaming, has partnered with Tron. The collaboration allows Refereum to pay out its video game streaming users in Tron’s TRX coin, and BitTorrent’s BTT token, said an April 2 statement provided to Cointelegraph. Partnerships, more partnerships, and purchases Tron bought software company, BitTorrent Inc, in 2018. BitTorrent also utilizes an associated crypto asset called BTT, which is built on Tron’s blockchain. Refereum teamed up with DLive, a blockchain streaming service, near the end of 2019, giving video game live streamers reward-collecting potential. Furthering the connective web, Tron made …

Blockchain platform Solana has joined up with decentralized oracle solution Chainlink to construct an oracle that updates incredibly quickly. "We recently saw market failures due to congestion on Ethereum, including oracle failures,” Solana CEO and founder Anatoly Yakovenko told Cointelegraph in an interview, adding: “What we're building with Chainlink is a high-frequency oracle that can give a price update every 400 milliseconds — and because of our capacity, we shouldn't see those kinds of market failures on our network. It's solving a fundamental problem that we see in the decentralized exchange space." Solana shoots for scalability Currently a popular network …