AMC Rewards Investors With an 'I Own AMC' NFT: How to Redeem It

AMC Entertainment has been the flagbearer of the meme stock trade. After the initial euphoria driven by WallStreetBets, AMC has its army of loyal investors, who call themselves the “Apes.” AMC has rewarded its investors with an “I Own AMC” NFT. Who's eligible for the NFT and how do investors redeem it?

This is the second NFT from AMC. In the past, the cinema chain company offered a Spider-Man NFT along with Sony. The company also accepts Bitcoin as payment for tickets and is expected to accept Dogecoin soon as well.

While institutional investors found AMC stock overvalued, the “Apes” held on to their holdings. AMC has been warming up to retail investors and over the last year, AMC CEO Adam Aron has praised the loyal retail shareholder base multiple times. He has also said that the company is striving to add value for these shareholders.

Over the last year, while several institutional investors, including Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin's Dalian Wanda Group Co, have sold AMC shares, retail investors have added to their positions. AMC hasn’t disappointed retail investors and has offered them several perks including free popcorn at movie theaters.

AMC also has an Investor Connect platform for retail investors. The members get special benefits including advance screenings. The company will release Moonfall on Jan. 26 and Forever on Feb. 1 for the Investor Connect members.

The AMC Investor Connect has over 425,000 members. The company will offer these NFTs to all U.S.-based members. Members residing in countries where it's legal to hold an NFT will also receive them provided AMC and its partner Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX) have the technical ability to offer them in those regions.

The NFTs are another way that AMC is rewarding its retail investors. The company said, “From time to time, AMC expects to airdrop discounts or other benefits at its theatres to the then current holders of these NFTs.”

AMC has mailed unique codes to eligible Investor Connect members. The NFT can be redeemed using the code that you get in the email. Aron tweeted that almost 100,000 members have already redeemed the codes and over 200 have been resold with prices as high as $223.80.

The NFTs can be maintained on WAX Cloud Wallet, in which case AMC would bear all the account hosting costs for 2022. The NFTs can be maintained in some of the other crypto wallets but in that case, the holder would have to bear the related expenses.

The NFT doesn't seem to be changing the fortunes of AMC stock and it has continued to fall. The stock has lost almost a third of its market cap in 2022 and is underperforming the markets by a wide margin. The sell-off isn't limited to AMC. Fellow meme names like GameStop, Clover Health, and Bed Bath & Beyond have also tumbled in 2022.

AMC stock has now fallen almost 75 percent from its peak. Looking at the broader market volatility and the sell-off in meme stocks, the tide might not turn anytime soon. The company might need much more than free popcorn and NFTs to revive its fortunes.