What happened
Popular cryptocurrency Dogecoin (CRYPTO:DOGE) got a boost from a surprising source yesterday. Adam Aron, CEO of movie theater chain AMC, shared on social media about his company’s need to start accepting payments with the cryptocurrency. As of 2 p.m. EDT, Dogecoin was only up 1% over the previous 24 hours. However, it’s up roughly 10% from this week’s lows.
The world’s two largest cryptocurrencies, Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) and Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC), were also up on Thursday. Both were up more than 2% over the previous 24 hours. These cryptocurrencies also appear to gaining support because of new use cases, in this instance not from AMC but from Twitter.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
For background, AMC previously announced it would be supporting payments from Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin by the end of 2021. According to CoinMarketCap, these are 1st, 2nd, 18th, and 19th largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. But for some people, the 10th largest cryptocurrency — Dogecoin — was noticeably absent from these plans.
Complaints apparently reached Aron’s ears. The AMC CEO posted a poll on his Twitter account earlier this week, asking followers if the movie theater company should support Dogecoin in addition to the other tokens already in its plans. And Aron was quickly surprised by the buzz created by his tweeted poll.
SO FASCINATING! Dogecoin Poll was by far my highest ever read tweet. In 24 hours, 4.2 million views, my most ever retweets, most ever replies. 140,000 votes 77% yes 23% no. It’s clear that you think AMC should accept Dogecoin. Now we need to figure out how to do that. Stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/tkClzgMBMO
— Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) September 22, 2021
Millions of Twitter users threw their support behind Dogecoin, saying AMC should indeed support it. Aron implied that the company will start accepting Dogecoin in time.
AMC isn’t the first business to accept Dogecoin. For example, you can use it to buy tech products on Newegg or buy tickets to a Dallas Mavericks basketball game. But use cases for Dogecoin are currently limited. Therefore, fans of Dogecoin see acceptance from AMC as a bullish signal.
It’s important for cryptocurrencies to have a growing set of use cases to support long-term adoption. That’s why today’s announcement from Twitter is noteworthy for Bitcoin and Ethereum. The social media platform rolled out a feature earlier this year allowing followers to tip accounts on the platform. Starting today, Tips from Twitter will support Bitcoin as well.
Moreover, Twitter is also reportedly looking to authenticate non-fungible tokens on the platform. NFTs are a form of digital art that are scarce and are private property. Right now, there’s no way to know if a Twitter user owns an NFT displayed on their profile. But Twitter plans to remedy this in the future with an authentication feature.
This is noteworthy for Ethereum because many NFTs are built on the Ethereum blockchain.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
The tag team between AMC and Twitter doesn’t ensure that values for this trio of cryptocurrencies will keep heading higher. The story of cryptocurrencies is still being written. Right now cryptocurrencies are increasingly being supported as payment options and use cases are also surging — it’s an interesting chapter of this book. But long term, it’s hard to know where cryptocurrencies are headed.
For both AMC and Twitter, it’s hard to imagine this week’s news will move the needle for their respective businesses. In AMC’s case, it will accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment, yes. But it’s doubtful many people would actually buy movie tickets with Dogecoin. And even if some did, it doesn’t seem likely this would cause AMC to gain new customers who would have stayed home otherwise.
And for Twitter, it’s not currently monetizing the Tips feature. Furthermore, there’s no timeline for NFT authentication. So today’s news is interesting for these cryptocurrencies but it’s unlikely to improve the long-term business prospects of either company.
This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the “official” recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. We’re motley! Questioning an investing thesis — even one of our own — helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.
