HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC—BermudAir has become the first airline in the world to offer native stablecoin payments for ticket bookings after it announced a partnership with Zero Hash, a Bermuda-based fintech company.
BermudAir has made inroads into digital finance, including issuing a one-million tokenized bond in partnership with crypto custodian XBTO.
The announcement was made during the inaugural Bermuda Digital Finance Forum, showcasing how local businesses are innovating financially.
Under the agreement, travelers will soon be able to purchase flights using stablecoins, digital currencies tied to traditional money like the US dollar.
The founder and chief executive of Zero Hash, Edward Woodford, told the Royal Gazette newspaper that passengers will be accepted directly on BermudAir’s website and mobile app and that the feature is expected to go live by the end of August.
“For certain customers, this may make a lot of sense, and for BermudAir, it makes a lot of sense to offer this,” he told the newspaper.
Currently, international travelers often face one to three percent foreign transaction fees when buying flight tickets with a credit card. Stablecoins can avoid those fees and allow payments to be processed instantly without relying on banks or dealing with currency conversions.
“We’re eliminating the friction of currency exchange and foreign transaction fees. This is about making the experience faster, cheaper, and more inclusive for travelers worldwide,” said Adam Scott, founder and chief executive of BermudAir.
Woodford said Zero Hash’s role is to keep the experience seamless for customers and the airline.
“They just need to embed our kind of embeddable widget, which makes it very simple. Stablecoins effectively cut out intermediaries and make it streamlined,” he told the Royal Gazette, adding that stablecoins are becoming more common, even if users don’t always realize it.
He said that through platforms such as PayPal and Venmo, “you can access stablecoins seamlessly. ”
Zero Hash, which is licensed in Bermuda under the Digital Asset Business Act, sees the island as an ideal global hub.
“We find that Bermuda is a great point for our global business. Clear regulation that is adaptive to what is ultimately an adapting technology,’ Woodford said, noting that the partnership also reflects Bermuda’s growing presence in digital finance.
“We’re scaling out. That’s why we’re here. We’re invested in the region and continuing to build.”
and then 