Sequoia Capital marks down entire $214M FTX stake to zero

The venture capital firm assured partners it ran a rigorous due diligence assessment when it invested in FTX, finding the exchange to generate $1 billion in revenue and $250 million in operating income.

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Polygon taps Airbnb’s director of HR to spearhead its decentralized workforce

Cointelegraph spoke to Polygon’s newly appointed global head of HR, Bhumika Srivastava, to learn more about her Web2-to-Web3 transition and philosophy for decentralized cultures, among other things.

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Airbnb CEO is “personally supportive of crypto” but has no immediate plans

The CEO of lodging firm Airbnb, Brian Chesky in a recent CNBC interview spoke about cryptocurrency and the steps the firm is taking in dealing with Ukrainian refugees. When asked about his opinion on crypto, the exec responded positively saying that he is looking to support it as he thinks “it’s a really interesting technology.” […]

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Crypto Payments Ranks as Top Suggestion to Airbnb, Customers Request Better Service

Airbnb’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Brain Chesky, said followers are asking the company for integrating digital currency payments ranks as the top suggestion. (Read More)

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Based On A Twitter Poll, Airbnb Users May Get Crypto Payment This Year

Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb has hinted that the popular travel home-booking company may soon accept crypto payments based on a recent Twitter poll. Chesky Says Users Want Crypto A growing number of businesses are making crypto payment available to their customers. However, some businesses are taking an unusual approach to cryptocurrency adoption. The #1 feature users are requesting in 2022, according to Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, is the feature to pay for bookings in cryptocurrencies. “If Airbnb could launch anything in 2022, what would it be?” Chesky tweeted over the weekend. Two days later, he revealed the list of the the top six suggestions out of roughly 4,000 received. Got 4,000 suggestions. Here are the top 6: 1 – Crypto payments (top suggestion)2 – Clear pricing displays3 – Guest loyalty program4 – Updated cleaning fees5 – More long-term stays & discounts6 – Better customer service Already working on most, will look into others now! https://t.co/rxEM4BXZci — Brian Chesky (@bchesky) January 5, 2022 Clear pricing displays, a guest loyalty program, updated cleaning fees, more long-term stays and discounts, better customer service, and “commercial spaces (kitchens, co-working)” are among the other top proposals. The CEO of Airbnb specifically confirmed that the company is looking into commercial spaces, saying: “Already working on most, will look into others now.” Some governments ban foreign transfers, according to one person who suggested crypto. As a result, he relies on digital currencies. “We are looking into this.” Chesky replied. In the travel sector, Airbnb maintains an online marketplace. There are already over 5.6 million listings worldwide, according to the company’s website. Airbnb has served over 1 billion clients since its inception in 2007, and over 4 million hosts have listed their properties on the marketplace. In most countries, Airbnb accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and JCB as payment methods. Also accepted are Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Paypal. Airbnb presently does not accept cryptocurrency as a payment method. Airbnb will join the ranks of Tesla and AMC, among others, in accepting cryptocurrency as payment if the popular recommendation is implemented. BTC/USD slumps to $42k. Source: TradingView Related article | IPO Windfalls from Airbnb Could Boost Bitcoin: DCG CEO Airbnb Rival Already Into Crypto Pay While Airbnb is just getting started with crypto pay, DTravel, a decentralized home-sharing platform made that possible in 2021 The platform is integrated into the Travala.com. This is managed by users holding the DTravel (TRVL) token, which is backed by Binance. Customers may book 250,000 homes using cryptocurrency. With a global network of 20,000 homes, the TRVL token can be used to book homes. The TRVL token is listed on exchanges such as MEXC Global, Bybit, Gate, and KuCoin. Airbnb has been considering crypto pay for quite sometime too. “We have been following the space for quite a long time,” Chesky said, noting that “the founder of Coinbase was an early employee of ours.” “The key is when regular people understand how the new technology improved their lives, beyond the initial excitement,” the CEO added. “I’m particularly enthusiastic about several applications that ordinary people could utilize to improve their daily lives.” Related article | Dtravel Home-Sharing Platform Arrives on MEXC Global & Bybit Launchpad Featured Image from Shutterstock, Charts from TradingView.com

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AirBNB Gone INSANE? or is Their Plan GENIUS? Company Will IPO In Tourisms Worst Period Ever - Plus Major Revamp Involving Cryptocurrencies, Blockchain Tech, And More...

Now, disappointing performance of the vaccine, with it neither preventing contracting or spreading COVID (but does reduce death rates and severity of cases) it's becoming questionable whether unrestricted travel will become possible again within the next year.

Rumors of an IPO have been around since 2017, and after all that waiting it's under these disaster conditions that AirBNB shocked us with the announcement - they're planning an IPO.

So - why would a company in an industry currently suffering, choose now to IPO? Well, AirBNB is so focused on 'the future' that what's happening now isn't relevant to their plan...

Airbnb is planning costly investments in the expansion and further development of the platform. 

With regard to crypto integration, it would be surprising if implementing Bitcoin payments were not part of this plan. Not to mention, they've openly said in a statement:

"Our future success will also depend on our ability to adapt to new technologies such as tokenization, cryptocurrencies, new authentication technologies such as biometrics, distributed ledger and blockchain technologies, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality and cloud technologies."

Yes, all those words were in 1 sentence: tokenization, cryptocurrencies, distributed ledger, blockchain technologies.

So far, responses from the public are mixed...

Are they making big moves at the absolute worst time?

Or is this aggressive, forward-looking strategy exactly how a company like AirBNB could emerge from the pandemic stronger than ever? 

Potentially, they could position themselves in a much more dominate position in their industry - which may easier right now, while their competition is hurting or hibernating. 
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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk  / Breaking Crypto News

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