RIYADH: AMC Theatres, the largest movie theater chain in the world, will be accepting payments in two popular meme cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu in March, Adam Aron, the company’s CEO wrote on Twitter. The company owns approximately 950 theaters and 10,500 screens worldwide. Aron wrote: “Bitpay will be live for AMC online payments” by March 19 and live on the company’s mobile app by April 16. Investment Pantera Capital, a US cryptocurrency hedge fund, backed African crypto exchange VALR.com in its latest funding round, valuing the company at $240 million. VALR.com raised $50 million, the largest amount by a crypto company in Africa to date, according to the CEO Farzam Ehsani. The money will be used to expand operations in Africa and India, Ehsani said. VALR.com facilitates $7.5 billion worth of annual trades in more than 60 digital currencies, including Bitcoin and Ether, Bloomberg reported. Cryptocurrencies first started booming in Africa, particularly in Nigeria and South Africa, where nearly a fifth of the population owns some form of digital asset. That compares with the global average of just over 10 percent, according to the latest data from Finbold. While crypto assets in the two countries are often used as a hedge against volatile national currencies, the lack of a regulatory framework on the continent continues to be an obstacle for companies, investors, and institutions. South Africa is planning to provide the market with crypto regulations this year, according to Bloomberg. Daily trading Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency internationally, traded higher on Wednesday, rising by 1.26 percent to $44,150 at 1:59 p.m. Riyadh time. Ether, the second most traded cryptocurrency, was priced at $3,006, up by 2.94 percent, according to data from CoinDesk.