AMC is now jumping onto the crypto train.
In an earnings call this week, the theater company announced it would begin introducing crypto tech to allow all moviegoers in the U.S. to buy their snacks and tickets in bitcoin by year’s end.
“I have had to learn more in the previous six months about cryptocurrency and blockchain than I learned about the technology in the whole decade before that,” said their CEO, Adam Aron.
He added that his company was also looking into “how else AMC could participate in this new cryptocurrency world, and we are very interested in the lucrative business possibilities.”
For now, the change will allow their customers to purchase tickets over the internet using bitcoin for all of the company’s US-based theaters. The CEO said that “since we did the IT work to accept bitcoin, we are also simultaneously creating the code to accept Google Pay and Apple Pay for purchases at our American locations.”
Investors applauded this news with AMC shares increasing 5.3% in overnight trading. Bitcoin was higher 5.5% from a day earlier.
As cryptos become a more mainstream option, a larger number of companies are looking how to use them in their business operations.
Last month, digital currencies increased after bullish remarks from the CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey and the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk.
Musk had said at the time that his two companies — Tesla and SpaceX — both held bitcoin, while Dorsey reported that the digital currency could have a role in Twitter’s strategy in the future.
That week, reports of an Amazon job posting also had bitcoin surging. The company was trying to hire someone for a “blockchain and digital currency product lead,” who would help its payments group create “new capabilities.”
“We are inspired by the innovation being done in cryptocurrency and are exploring what this might look like on Amazon’s platform,” a spokesperson said at the time.
“We believe the future will use these new technologies that allow inexpensive and fast payments, and hope to bring this future to Amazon as soon as we can.”
Author: Steven Sinclaire
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