Crypto-friendly hotel booking behemothic Travala now accepts payment from a controversial cryptocurrency leader.

On Jan. 10, Travala announced that Tether (USDT) is now a valid grade of payment at its 2 meg linked properties. Travala CEO Matt Luczynski said:

"Role of our mission is to provide our users with a wide pick of the well-nigh well known and used cryptocurrencies so information technology fabricated perfect sense for usa to integrate USDT as a payment choice on Travala.com."

In improver to Tether, Travala also accepts payments of Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Litecoin, Binance Money, Bitcoin Greenbacks, Stellar, and Cardano, as well as its own coin, AVA.

Tether's position in the crypto market

Tether entered the crypto market in 2022. The stablecoin promised to avoid price fluctuations with its ane-to-one ratio with fiat currency. Merchants showed eagerness for the Hong Kong-based coin.

"Merchants used to accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and convert information technology into Tether in lodge to hedge against the volatility," said Sean Mackay, operations lead at PaymentsSource, a financial services resources. "Now we are seeing the payments just being done directly in Tether."

Stablecoin faces legal woes

Concluding April, New York Attorney General Letitia James charged Tether'southward parent company, Tether Express, of colluding with parent visitor, iFinex, and using Tether'due south reserve funds to cover the loss of more $850 million in client and corporate funds from crypto substitution Bitfinex, thus undermining USDT's claims to stability based on USD reserves.

Despite iFinex'due south legal difficulties, and despite having the fifth-highest market capitalization, Tether continues to meet the highest daily and monthly trading book. As of writing, Tether boasts a 24-hour trading book of almost $26.v billion — exceeding Bitcoin'southward $22.5 billion, co-ordinate to CoinMarketCap.