AMC Theaters to Accept Bitcoin in the US by End of 2021

AMC Theaters will accept cryptocurrency bitcoin for movie tickets and concessions in the United States by the end of 2021, according to CEO Adam Aron, who first made the announcement at a call for results on On Monday. The movie chain will also begin accepting Apple Pay and Google Pay, but there are still many important questions about AMC’s bitcoin betting that have yet to be answered.

“I must have learned more over the past six months about blockchain and cryptocurrency than I learned over the past decade,” Aron told members of the conference call.

“This increased knowledge has given me the confidence to tell you today that AMC officially announces during this call that at the end of the year, we will have the computer systems in place to accept bitcoin ”, continued Aron.

Aron noted that all purchases of movie tickets and bitcoin concessions would have to be done online, leaving the question of whether customers would be able to change their purchases after arriving at the movie theater. But there is an even bigger issue that Aron did not address on the call: Bitcoin’s high transaction costs, which make it infamous as a currency.

Who will end up paying the transaction fees every time an AMC customer wants to buy a $ 10 bag of popcorn? Average bitcoin transaction fees are currently around $ 2.50, which means you’re going to pay $ 12.50 if you want to use bitcoin. It seems unlikely that AMC will absorb this cost, probably passing it on to the consumer.

Bitcoin transaction fees are also extremely volatile, as is the price of bitcoin itself. As of April, bitcoin transaction fees exceeded $ 62 per transaction, which could very well happen again. If transaction fees skyrocket, your $ 10 bag of popcorn suddenly costs $ 72 in fiat money.

Aron said on the call that he heard about the cryptocurrency while serving on the board of directors of Centricus Acquisition Corp. AMC became a meme stock with GameStop after WallStreetBets users decided to press short sellers on Wall Street who were targeting what redditors considered a beloved institution from childhood.

AMC stock is currently priced at $ 33.80, up 3.36% in the past 24 hours and up a stunning 1,494% on the year, all thanks to the craze for the same actions.

AMC is obviously not the first company to experiment with cryptocurrencies. Electric car maker Tesla started accepting bitcoin in end of March, but stopped less than Two months later. Tesla CEO Elon Musk insisted the company stopped taking bitcoin because he was concerned about the environmental impact of mining cryptocurrency, a process that requires a huge amount of money. ‘energy. But Musk said right last month he is ready to accept bitcoin again in the future.

Bitcoin’s energy use hasn’t changed dramatically in 2021, so many interpret Musk’s about-face simply as an attempt to manipulate the price of bitcoin, an accusation the billionaire firmly denies.

A recent job posting for Amazon hinted at the online retail giant’s interest in cryptocurrencies, but the company has denied plans to accept bitcoin in the near future. that of London City AM press point reported in July that Amazon was planning to accept bitcoin by the end of 2021 and may even develop its own coin by 2022, but Amazon says that’s not true.

“Despite our interest in the space, the speculation that has ensued around our specific plans for cryptocurrencies is not true. We remain focused on exploring what this might look like for clients who buy from Amazon, ”an Amazon spokesperson said. Gizmodo.

Bitcoin is currently trading at $ 45,936, up 5.1% in the past 24 hours. The crypto has headed north in recent weeks after falling below $ 30,000 in July, but it is still significantly below its all-time high of $ 63,729 in April.

Bitcoin is volatile to say the least, one of the main reasons it is such a terrible currency. But if people want to pay in crypto, big companies will be happy to oblige. These companies just need to figure out how to offload their holdings when the price is high, and you can bet someone is working there right now.

AMC CEO is scheduled to be on CNBC at 9 a.m. ET this morning, which should be interesting. You can bet we’ll be listening to see if any of our transaction fee questions are answered.