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Cinema chain AMC will accept bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies this year as digital currencies gain mainstream acceptance among investors

  • AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron said the company’s cinemas would start accepting bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash and litecoin for payments by year end
  • Cryptocurrency investors welcomed the news, although some see such digital coins as more of an investment vehicle than currency

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AMC Empire 25 in Manhattan, New York, on January 5, 2017. The cinema chain announced that it would start accepting cryptocurrencies as they continue to gain mainstream acceptance. Photo: Shutterstock
Reuters
AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc boss Adam Aron said the theatre chain would accept ether, bitcoin cash and litecoin alongside bitcoin for ticket purchases, as cryptocurrencies gain acceptance among mainstream investors and companies.

“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,” Aron said in a tweet on Wednesday.

The company said in August that it would start accepting bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, by the end of the year.

Prices of bitcoin and ether were marginally down, while litecoin was up 1.7 per cent. AMC’s shares, one of the so-called “meme stocks”, were down about 1 per cent in premarket trading.

“While I don’t think this is going to make any of these coins do any parabolic movements as a result, to me this is just another awesome step in the global adoption of crypto as a whole,” said one user in the Reddit group r/cryptocurrency that discusses digital currencies.

Many big corporations in America are jumping on to the crypto bandwagon even as concerns grow over the environmental impact since “mining” digital currencies consumes massive amounts of energy.

Analysts have also raised questions about the viability of day-to-day use of cryptocurrencies.

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