coincodex.com
Key highlights:
- Movie theater chain AMC will start accepting Bitcoin by the end of 2021
- According to CEO Aron Adam, the company is also exploring other ways of getting involved in crypto
- Alongside GameStop, AMC Entertainment was one of the "meme stocks" that went viral thanks to the r/WallStreetBets subreddit
AMC says it will start accepting Bitcoin payments
Movie theater chain AMC Entertainment will start accept Bitcoin payments by the end of 2021. The company’s CEO Aron Adam recently appeared on CNBC, where he said that accepting Bitcoin payments is one of the ways that the company is leveraging its capital to “go on the offense”.
“We’re going to get quite involved in the field of cryptocurrency. We announced yesterday that we’re going to be accepting Bitcoin as payment for online purchases for AMC admissions and concessions.”
In the company’s second-quarter earnings call, Aron said that AMC is also looking at additional ways of engaging with cryptocurrency:
“We are also in the preliminary stage of now exploring how else AMC can participate in this new burgeoning cryptocurrency universe and we’re quite intrigued by potentially lucrative business opportunities for AMC if we intelligently pursue further serious involvement with cryptocurrency.”
Alongside Bitcoin, AMC also plans to start accepting Apple Pay and Google Pay as payment methods.
AMC Entertainment is one of the “meme” stocks that went viral earlier this year thanks to the r/WallStreetBets subreddit. Retail investors gathering in the WSB community began buying heavily shorted stocks like GameStop and AMC Entertainment in an effort to profit from short squeezes. However, the movement also had a political note, with some members viewing it as a form of protest against the allegedly unethical practices of certain hedge funds. Thanks to this viral phenomenon, AMC stock has seen tremendous volatility – this year alone, it has been priced as low as $2 and as high as $62.5.
Getting behind cryptocurrency, an asset class dominated by younger investors and users, could help AMC maintain its newfound momentum. However, it will be interesting to see how AMC plans to tackle the volatility in Bitcoin’s price and transaction fees, which can be prohibitively expensive in the context of smaller purchases like movie tickets.