The US cinema chain that owns UK chain Odeon has announced that it will accept ticket payments and concessions in Bitcoin by the end of 2021.
AMC has not yet confirmed whether the move will apply to cinemas in Europe.
CEO of the US chain Adam Aron told BBC News that it’s been exploring the technology and “how else AMC can participate in this new burgeoning cryptocurrency universe”.
US mobile operator AT&T, technology giant Microsoft and information website Wikipedia have all started to accept payment in Bitcoin.
The cryptocurrency, as the BBC notes, has seen wild price swings in recent weeks. Yesterday (August 10) it was trading at about $45,000 (£32,500) after falling below $30,000 in July.
Aron added in a conference call to journalists: “I’ve had to learn more in the past six months about blockchain and cryptocurrency than I learned about it in the entire decade before that.
“This increased knowledge has given me the confidence to tell you all today that AMC is hereby formally announcing… that by year’s end we will have the information technology systems in place to accept Bitcoin.”
In other news, rapper and YouTube star KSI revealed recently that he made £7million in cryptocurrency last year only to lose it all in the Bitcoin crash.
He shared the revelation during an appearance on Made In Chelsea star Jamie Laing’s podcast, Private Parts. When he was asked about “a lot of money” he had invested in Bitcoin by the host, KSI replied: “I put £2m into Bitcoin – well, I say Bitcoin. I put [in] £2m last year – November, December – but this was into cryptocurrencies.
“I made £7m and now I’ve lost it all. It’s mental. It’s been a full journey, but I had to experience it. I fully understand it now. I put money in things where I essentially leveraged myself and I kinda over-leveraged myself to a point where I lost money because of it.”
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