Two days ago, Travala announced that its annual revenue has exceeded the $100 million milestone, and it will include its token AVA and Bitcoin in its strategic reserves.
Author: Leek, Foresight News
In the early hours of December 13, the price of a token called AVA surged 300% within an hour, breaking through the $3 mark from around $0.8, reaching the highest level since October 2021. As of the time of writing, the token is quoted at $2.6, with a 24-hour increase of over 254%.
What caused the little-known AVA token to skyrocket in the middle of the night?
At 11:49 pm on December 12, Binance founder and former CEO CZ posted a tweet on the X platform: "We invested in this crypto travel platform before the pandemic and crypto winter."
Source: X
The tweet he shared was about the AVA token project Travala. On December 11, the crypto travel platform Travala announced that it had reached the $100 million annual revenue milestone and would include its token AVA and Bitcoin in its strategic reserves.
According to Cointelegraph's report, Travala co-founder and CEO Juan Otero said this milestone reflects significant growth compared to the platform's $59.6 million revenue in 2023. He explained that the surge was mainly driven by flight and hotel bookings, as the platform can accept payment in more than 100 cryptocurrencies.
Travala is a platform that combines blockchain technology and travel services, aiming to facilitate global travel convenience and transparency through cryptocurrency payments. Its founder is Juan Otero, who held senior positions at several tech companies and startups before founding Travala in 2017. Travala's headquarters are located in the UK. Its original intention was to revolutionize the travel booking industry through blockchain technology, making travel more convenient, efficient, and economical.
Travala has received multiple rounds of funding since its inception. Tracxn data shows that Travala has raised a total of $1.62 million through five seed funding rounds. The largest round was $1.25 million in October 2020. Notable investors include the Thailand-based institutional investor Yellow and angel investor Mohammad Maaz. Other funding rounds were concentrated between 2019 and 2022, with some undisclosed amounts. CZ also revealed that Binance had invested in the platform in 2019 or earlier.
Travala's native token AVA was listed on the Binance exchange in July 2019, which was an important milestone in the project's development. In addition, AVA is also listed on several other exchanges, including Kucoin and gate.io.
Travala has made some progress in the past few years, mainly including:
- Diversified payment methods: Currently supporting over 90 cryptocurrencies for payment, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB. It also supports traditional payment methods such as credit cards and PayPal.
- Product expansion: From the initial hotel booking to flight booking, travel activities, and vacation packages, covering more than 220 countries and regions worldwide.
- Cooperation with travel giants: Travala has established partnerships with traditional travel giants like Booking.com and Expedia, providing users with more travel options.
- Community and governance: Launched AVA Staking and Smart Program, allowing users to earn rewards by staking AVA and participate in platform governance and decision-making.
- Post-pandemic recovery: Travala launched an innovative "Travel Reward Program" after the pandemic to attract users back to the travel market, and announced that quarterly sales have gradually recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
Citing Otero, Cointelegraph reported that with more resources, Travala plans to hire new employees on its platform and launch new incentive measures, and added: "Treasury funds will be strategically managed; as the crypto ecosystem matures, we hope to be able to use our crypto reserves directly without the need for conversion."
Travala did not disclose the amount of its Bitcoin and AVA reserves when it was launched. But its founder said that as the business and market continue to mature, it may consider introducing other tokens into the treasury in the future.
