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After only a few weeks of being announced as our partner, @Dashpay is already top crypto on @travalacom! Only behind BTC and their native AVA!!

Many thanks to the https://t.co/K8ssq2HMF9 team! Let's keep pushing & growing this market!! 😎🏖🏞https://t.co/P0q3Btai4A pic.twitter.com/L0PqycebG9 — Ernesto (@ernestocontrer) August 1, 2019

Dash is rapidly closing in on Bitcoin as a popular payment option across several companies according to recently-released data.

According to data published by discount travel booking site Travala, the top cryptocurrency payment option is its own proprietary AVA token, followed by industry leader Bitcoin. Dash, however, comes in third with 11% of payments more than the percentage of the next two payment options (Ethereum and Litecoin) combined with 9%. This comes shortly after Travala was announced as the official travel partner of Dash Core Group. Travala integrated Dash as a payment option in December of last year, and according to the Cryptonomist 70% of its bookings are now done with cryptocurrency.

Additionally, according to Germany-based ecommerce retailer ShopinBit.de, Dash has become the second-most popular payment option on the platform behind Bitcoin. Payments via Bitcoin’s Lightning network came in third, with other popular cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin Cash, ranking in behind. This echoes 2016 statistics from prominent online retailer Purse.io, which indicated in its statistics for its ShapeShift integration, which it used to convert other cryptocurrencies to Bitcoin at the checkout, that Dash consistently ranked as the most popular non-Bitcoin currency on the platform.

Dash proving to be a top payment contender across numerous platforms and companies

Dash has consistently shown to be a top contender, well out of its market capitalization league, for cryptocurrency payments across other platforms beyond ecommerce. Popular cryptocurrency point-of-sale app Anypay, widely used in key adoption-heavy areas such as New Hampshire and Thailand, reports in a publicly-available statistics page that Dash transactions comprise 78% of all historical payments, handily dwarfing Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and other supported payments on the platform. Anypay famously pioneered the Dash-back concept by sending a small refund to customers paying in Dash, providing a distinct incentive to switch they purchase method.

We are seeing more data every week that Dash is consistently #1 or #2 for payments. Here’s yet another example. https://t.co/gySPg43qtH — Ryan Taylor (@RTaylor05) August 3, 2019

Additionally, according to CEO Jorge Farias, Cryptobuyer, the Latin American exchange and merchant platform, Dash has consistently ranked as a top popular asset on the platform, recently outpacing Bitcoin itself. Cryptobuyer is one of the more significant exchanges in the region and in Dash-heavy Venezuela in particular, and its point-of-sale software is used in the Traki department store chain in the country.

Finally, Dash’s high rankings reported recently have not been limited to payment options. The SALT Lending platform recently reported that Dash was the second most popular collateral option on the platform, again after Bitcoin, indicating that even as a store of value Dash is fast becoming viewed as a potential contender for even the industry leader in the cryptocurrency world. Due to popular demand, SALT added Dash as a collateral option earlier this year, including explicit masternode support, allowing customers to still operate masternodes, including voting and receiving rewards, while using the 1,000 Dash requirement as collateral for a loan.

Hey @RTaylor05 thanks for the shoutout. But to be fair @dashembassydach has been doin a lot of groundwork here in Germany that made the high ranking of DASH possible.

As you can see with the coins on number 4, they are highly popular but not really used. — ShopinBit.de (@shopinbit) August 4, 2019

Concentrated Dash adoption efforts have had a statistical impact

While high rankings as a payment option for Dash make sense due to its instantly-confirmed and respensable payments, part of its success in this area may be due to other factors. According to ShopinBit, a reasonable explanation for the higher ranking on its site is a heavy adoption focus on the German-speaking region of Europe by Dash, more specifically the Dash Embassy D-A-CH, an outreach and business development organization funded under the Dash decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Outreach in the region has proved successful in acquiring key integrations and onboarding merchants, including payments terminal Salamantex, which has represented numerous business onboardings in the region.

Because of Dash’s treasury system, decentralized outreach efforts are able to receive funding in order to professionalize, boosting Dash’s usefulness as a currency through greater adoption. Most notably, Dash’s growth in Venezuela was largely attributed to on-the-ground adoption teams funded by the treasury, and as a result thousands of merchants have reportedly been onboarded to accept Dash in the country.