AMC Entertainment is working on its infrastructure to accept Bitcoin as payment for movie tickets from this year.

AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron, during an earnings call on August 9, said the company was preparing its IT systems to start accepting Bitcoin payments for online ticket purchases before the end of the year.

The company has posted better than expected results in its earnings report

AMC Entertainment is the largest movie theatre chain in the world with 2,866 screens in 358 theatres in Europe and 7,967 screens in 620 theatres in the United States. But the company was in dire financial straits until recently. The company’s share price had dipped to $2 a share at the start of the year due to poor financials and future outlook following the COVID-19 pandemic. But a rally led by retail investors along with hype on social media saw the AMC share price rocket to a high of $72.62 on June 2, an increase of over 2900 percent.

AMC’s stock became the latest meme stock rally after the retail interest triggered a short squeeze for the stock. As the stock’s value left fundamentals and valuations behind, it has remained relatively volatile. Currently, the AMC share is being traded at $33.80, a 656.15 percent gain year to date.

But now AMC plans to bring in another volatile asset into the mix -- Bitcoin. The largest cryptocurrency’s wild ride continues as the price of BTC extended over $46,000 after less than a month, when Bitcoin hit its lowest price of below $30,000. While $46,000 is far from the peak prices that Bitcoin had managed to hit in mid-April, the cryptocurrency has rallied over 50 percent since its lowest price.

Bitcoin’s earlier rally was fuelled by news of Tesla starting to accept Bitcoin as payment. But when Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that Tesla would be halting plans to accept Bitcoin due to environmental concerns, the cryptocurrency began to rapidly lose value.

Recently, Musk said that Tesla will likely accept Bitcoin once the “percentage of renewable energy usage is most likely at or above 50 percent.”

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Aug 10, 2021 6:20 PM IST