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AMC Theatres, the largest movie theatre chain, is set to start accepting crypto payments. Adam Aron, the CEO of AMC Entertainment, unveiled this news through a tweet earlier today, noting that the organization is working on launching support for Ethereum (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH/USD) payments. According to him, the company is working on the infrastructure to support these payment options before the end of 2021.
Aron’s tweet read,
Cryptocurrency enthusiasts: you likely know @AMCTheatres has announced we will accept Bitcoin for online ticket and concession payments by year-end 2021. I can confirm today that when we do so, we also expect that we similarly will accept Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. pic.twitter.com/uKcFyQotoJ
— Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) September 16, 2021
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AMC Theatres first revealed crypto support on August 9, after announcing it intends to accept BTC payments in all its US theatres. The organization also disclosed that it was exploring other blockchain-related options. Following this announcement, the AMC stock, reportedly, surged by 4%.
Interestingly, the stock has gained over 2,100% year-to-date after retail traders created a short squeeze earlier this year, showing that the public has power over centralized organizations. While AMC Entertainment has not yet shared why it decided to embrace crypto, its decision might be inspired by the short squeeze.
Crypto continues inching closer to mass adoption
While today’s announcement has not triggered gains in the AMC stock, the four cryptocurrencies the company seeks to support are all green. At the time of writing, BTC is changing hands at $48,078.73 (£34,809.72) after gaining 1.88% in 24 hours. ETH is up 6.69% to trade at $3,619.00 (£2,620.29), and BCH has gained 1.12% to trade at $643.49 (£465.91). LTC is the highest gainer out of the four after climbing 6.95% to change hands at $193.56 (£140.14).
AMC Theatres is the latest mainstream company to announce support for crypto this year after Tesla influenced other leading organizations to dip their toes in the burgeoning asset class. With US lawmakers demanding regulators create fair regulations to oversee digital assets, more institutional investors are set to join the crypto sector once financial watchdogs offer clear guidance.
Despite the unclear regulations in most jurisdictions, crypto has continued spreading into different industries. For instance, German luxury brand Philipp Plein became the first renowned fashion brand to start accepting Bitcoin (BTC/USD), ETH, and Dogecoin (DOGE/USD), among other coins. The sports world has also been instrumental in fostering crypto adoption, with several teams exposing their fans to crypto by allowing payments or launching tokens.