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Travala has expanded crypto payments into global ground transport, enabling users to book car rentals with Solana across more than 50,000 locations. The rollout, announced alongside its new car rental vertical, marks one of the largest consumer-facing crypto payment rollouts tied to travel services.
Customers have access to inventory from over 1,700 rental suppliers in more than 150 countries through a single booking layer. Travala confirmed the feature in an official announcement, positioning Solana alongside its existing support for more than 100 cryptocurrencies.
📢 CAR RENTALS ARE NOW LIVE ON SOLANA🚗💨
You can now book car rentals from 1,700+ suppliers with @solana on Travala!
📍 50,000+ locations worldwide
Start your journey: https://t.co/bUoqkZZa7T
Find out more:https://t.co/2XrQTwjXQP pic.twitter.com/jfcQYYJI8n
— Travala.com 🏨 ✈️ (@travalacom) March 17, 2026
The Solana integration sits on top of Travala’s broader expansion into car rentals, powered by a partnership with CarTrawler, a B2B travel technology provider. CarTrawler aggregates rental inventory from global brands and independent operators. This gives Travala immediate scale without building supply relationships from scratch.
Scale has been a limiting factor for crypto payments in travel. Access to 50,000+ locations shifts usage from isolated integrations to a network-level rollout.
Travala reported more than $113 million in annual gross revenue in 2025, driven by demand across hotels, flights, and activities. Car rentals now extend that stack into end-to-end trip coverage.
Despite the expansion, the payment flow still reflects how crypto is used in travel today.
When you book with crypto on platforms like Travala, the transaction typically happens at the platform level. The rental provider itself often receives fiat. This means customers will almost certainly still need to present a traditional credit card at the rental counter for deposits and incidentals.
This structure highlights a key gap. Crypto is solving the payment interface, not fully replacing legacy systems behind the scenes.
The same pattern has appeared across the entire travel industry. Airlines and booking platforms have started integrating crypto payments at checkout, but settlement still happens in fiat.
A recent case involves Emirates Airlines, which partnered with Crypto.com to allow customers to pay for flights using digital assets like Bitcoin and Ether. The payment is converted into UAE dirhams at checkout to meet local regulations, meaning the airline itself does not handle crypto directly.
The model closely mirrors how platforms like Travala operate today. Crypto improves the payment interface, but the underlying financial system remains unchanged.
✈️ Emirates Airlines is partnering with Crypto. com to let customers pay for flights using crypto by converting digital assets like $BTC or $ETH into $AED at checkout.
Not direct crypto settlement.
This move aligns with UAE regulations, which only allow AED stablecoins for… pic.twitter.com/paLz3TuDH6
— Cyprx Research Lab Official (@CyprxResearch) July 13, 2025
Travala’s expansion into car rentals follows a multi-year effort to build a unified crypto travel platform.
The company started as a hotel booking service in 2017. It added flights and activities in 2021, introduced multi-city flight bookings in 2025, and now includes ground transport. Each step reduces reliance on external platforms during a trip.
CEO Juan Otero described the car rental launch as a step toward bridging traditional travel logistics with crypto-based payments. The CarTrawler partnership supports that goal by plugging Travala into infrastructure already used by airlines and major travel brands.
Solana’s role in this rollout highlights growing competition among blockchains to capture consumer payment flows rather than purely on-chain activity.
At the same time, the limitations remain visible. Crypto can now cover more of the travel journey, but full end-to-end adoption depends on whether suppliers move beyond fiat settlement.
For now, platforms like Travala sit between crypto payments and traditional travel infrastructure.
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