rewrite this title Bhutan Partners with Binance Pay for Its Tourism Ecosystem – Decrypt

The Himalayan country of Bhutan has partnered with Binance Pay to enable crypto payments throughout its tourism ecosystem.

The integration, powered in conjunction with Bhutan’s local DK Bank, will reportedly allow tourists visiting the country to pay for things such as airline tickets, visa fees, hotel stays, monument entry, tour guides, and street food from roadside stalls with cryptocurrencies.

The new integration currently supports over 100 cryptocurrencies, including Binance Coin (BNB), Bitcoin (BTC), and USD Coin (USDC), and settles via the local currency, the Ngultrum (BTN), through DK Bank.

According to Binance, over 100 local merchants have been onboarded to the platform. The crypto exchange claims that the integration will enable small or rural local businesses, which may lack traditional payments infrastructure like card terminals, to accept crypto payments with their smartphones using only a QR code. QR codes are already one of the most popular forms of payment in the region, while the infrastructure supporting traditional payment rails like Visa or Mastercard is comparatively underdeveloped.

Binance also highlighted how the tool could help avoid common travel headaches like high transaction and currency exchange fees, and the limited acceptance of international cards.

It’s still unclear what Bhutan’s adoption of crypto payments will look like in practice. Though Bitcoin was legal tender in El Salvador between 2021 and early 2025, some studies showed relatively limited uptake by local businesses, who often opted to use US dollars instead.

Bhutan looks to crypto and tourism 

It shouldn’t come as a big surprise that Bhutan is signing deals with major crypto payments providers; the country has emerged as one of the most crypto-first nations in recent years in some respects.

Despite its relatively small economy, it has acquired the fifth-largest Bitcoin reserve of any country—ahead of El Salvador—according to data from Arkham Intelligence. This comes as a result of its abundant renewable energy supply and cold weather, which make it an ideal location for Bitcoin mining. Its Bitcoin reserves have previously been used to pay state employees like teachers, and its leaders have earmarked mining as a way to fuel economic growth.

Meanwhile, a Special Administrative Region in Bhutan announced earlier this year it is to formally adopt digital assets, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Binance’s BNB token, as part of its strategic reserves.

Meanwhile, Bhutan’s government is also pushing to increase tourism revenues, planning for tourism to one day represent up to 20% of its entire economy.