Along with GameStop, Nokia, and others, the stock price of movie theatre giant AMC soared in January as part of this year’s “meme stock” selling craze. Dogecoin (DOGE) led to an increase in the value of meme cryptocurrencies, indicating that demand for investments formerly considered undesirable by standard criteria is growing.
AMC has leaned into its “meme” status and the social media enthusiasm surrounding it, with its stock price up more than 2,100 percent since the start of the year. Part of that strategy includes accepting cryptocurrencies, with the company revealing plans to take Bitcoin payments by the end of the year in August.
AMC CEO Adam Aron added three new coins to the list this week: Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash. Those cryptocurrency payment methods, along with Bitcoin, are expected to be accessible for purchasing online tickets and concessions from AMC by the end of the year. Meme stock AMC is now accepting crypto, but not the Dogecoin.
So, where is Dogecoin these days? Although the leading meme coin appears to be a perfect match for one of the year’s fastest-growing meme stocks, AMC has remained silent on its adoption. In response to a barrage of inquiries and requests from DOGE fans, Aron—dubbed AMC’s “Silverback” by some ardent investors—did not respond on Twitter.
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. pic.twitter.com/uKcFyQotoJ
— Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) September 16, 2021
This year, AMC’s stock price soared as a result of a social media campaign spearheaded by the Reddit group r/WallStreetBets, which initially targeted GameStop’s stock. Robinhood, a mobile trading app, was one of the greatest winners of the movement, attracting millions of new users with the promise of quick and easy stock and cryptocurrency trades.
However, in response to the fast up and down price movement, as well as mounting legislative pressure, Robinhood imposed trading restrictions on AMC, GameStop, and other retailers. It did the same with cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin, later on. Robinhood has also experienced outages on occasion, owing to the high demand for DOGE trading. FINRA fined Robinhood $70 million in June for outages, false statements, and other violations dating back to 2016.
According to CoinGecko data, Dogecoin’s value has risen dramatically this year, from around half a penny on January 1 to an all-time high of around $0.73 in May. The joke coin is up more than 4,300 percent this year, despite its current price of $0.24, which is a considerable drop from its high.
However, as the difference between the peak in May and the present price suggests, Dogecoin and other meme coins and tokens (such as Shiba Inu and SafeMoon) are particularly volatile when compared to other major cryptocurrencies. They appear to fluctuate more than Bitcoin and Ethereum, and can swing drastically depending on social media sentiment—and Elon Musk’s tweets.
Despite this, Dogecoin has a sizable following. Given his meme-filled tweets and ability to manipulate DOGE’s price on the fly, Musk is one of them, but so is Mark Cuban. Dogecoin is an uncommon cryptocurrency, according to the billionaire investor and owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, that consumers genuinely want to spend rather than keep for future potential gains. Dogecoin is accepted in the Mavericks’ goods store. Cuban has also been a vocal supporter of Dogecoin on Twitter.
Dogecoin was founded as a joke, but it still has a lot of value today, despite being 67 percent off its May peak. In reality, it is one of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap, with a market cap of almost $32 billion. Perhaps the volatility is causing AMC to halt, or perhaps the company is still sorting out these early steps towards crypto payments.
In any case, if AMC wants to maintain the meme dream phase that has pushed its stock price to new heights, DOGE adoption appears to be a viable alternative.
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Also read: US Senator wants stricter prosecution of criminal use of crypto
