Steak ‘n Shake Says Sales Grew Double Digits Since Bitcoin Adoption
Bitcoin Magazine Steak ‘n Shake Says Sales Grew Double Digits Since Bitcoin Adoption The burger franchise started accepting bitcoin over Lightning last year and claims business is booming. This post...
The burger franchise started accepting bitcoin over Lightning last year and claims business is booming.
Burger restaurant franchise Steak ‘n Shake has said that accepting bitcoin payments has helped the company grow.
Writing on its X account Tuesday, the Indianapolis, Indiana-based company said since accepting the largest cryptocurrency, it has achieved double-digit same-store sales growth.
It added: “And this quarter has been extraordinary, with franchise-partners same-store sales gaining 19%.”
Ever since we started accepting Bitcoin in May 2025, we have achieved double-digit same-store sales growth! And this quarter has been extraordinary, with franchise-partners same-store sales gaining 19%. Come have a Bitcoin burger and Bitcoin shake to celebrate! 🍔🧡Thank…
The firm last year started accepting Bitcoin payments, using the Lightning Network to do so.
It added that it would add the cryptocurrency to its balance sheet and announced in January that it had added $10 million in Bitcoin to its strategic reserve.
Back in April, Steak ‘n Shake Chief MAHA Officer Michael Boes told attendees at the Bitcoin 2026 Conference that Bitcoin has become a core driver of the chain’s business performance.
Same-store sales rose 11% quarter over quarter in Q2 2025 and accelerated to 15% in Q3 2025, outpacing major rivals including McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Domino’s.
He called it the highest same-store sales growth of any restaurant in the industry — and all because bitcoin on Lightning is cheaper and faster than traditional electronic payment methods.
It works like this: When customers pay with bitcoin instead of a credit card, Steak ‘n Shake saves roughly 50% on processing fees. Traditional credit card processors charge merchants between 2.5% and 3.5% per transaction.
The company last year also toyed with the idea of accepting other cryptocurrencies but scrapped the idea after a poll on X revealed people thought that only bitcoin was needed.
Asanat Analysis — Why it matters
Steak 'n Shake's reported 19% same-store sales growth is materially driven by cost structure, not brand sentiment. Lightning Network payments reduce merchant fees from 2.5–3.5% to ~1.25–1.75%, a 50% reduction that flows directly to margin. This is economically rational for any high-volume, low-margin QSR business—the bitcoin acceptance is ancillary to the payment efficiency gain. The franchise is capturing cost savings that credit card networks extract; whether those savings translate to customer pricing or retained margin is unstated but material to sustainable growth claims.
This signals growing merchant adoption of L2 rails as a payment infrastructure play, not a currency speculation story. If Lightning's speed and cost advantage persist, expect more QSR franchises to adopt it—not for marketing optics but for P&L impact. However, the comparison to McDonald's and Taco Bell is incomplete: Steak 'n Shake may have benefited from a refranchising cycle or category tailwinds concurrent with Bitcoin adoption, making attribution difficult. The company's $10M Bitcoin balance sheet purchase is separate from payment processing and reflects treasury allocation, not operational causation.
Long-term relevance hinges on whether Lightning scales merchant adoption beyond early-adopter chains and whether traditional payment processors respond competitively. If fee pressure on card networks materializes sector-wide, this becomes a meaningful infrastructure shift; if isolated to crypto-affinity brands, it remains niche. Steak 'n Shake's willingness to hold Bitcoin suggests confidence in asset appreciation, not just payment utility—adding a volatility variable to claimed operational gains.