In brief
- The company said its same-store sales have risen since it began accepting Bitcoin, though it did not quantify the impact on revenue or margins.
- Bitcoin payments are routed into a corporate reserve that has expanded to about 161 BTC.
- Steak ’n Shake has extended its strategy beyond payments, using the reserve to fund employee bonuses.
Nine months ago, Steak ’n Shake began accepting Bitcoin. Now, the company says the move has driven a sharp rise in its sales.
Its same-store sales have risen “dramatically,” the company tweeted Monday, adding that it now routes Bitcoin payments into a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, which it has previously said is used to fund employee bonuses.
“We have combined a decentralized, cash-producing operating business with the transformative power of Bitcoin,” the company said. It first teased its pivot last May and began accepting payments in the world’s largest crypto.
The company did not disclose exactly how much of its Bitcoin activity has helped lift its bottom line. Decrypt has reached out to Steak ’n Shake and its owner, Biglari Holdings, for comment.
“This is what a real digital asset treasury model looks like,” Vineet Budki, CEO at venture capital firm Sigma Capital, told Decrypt.
Therein lies the difference “between strategy and speculation,” Budki said. “Compare this to companies where Bitcoin is the business model, where the stock is just a leveraged Bitcoin proxy.”
Corporate Bitcoin adoption “won’t come from crypto-native firms—it’ll come from traditional businesses treating Bitcoin like what it is: digital gold on a balance sheet, not a business plan,” Budki added.
In October last year, it debuted a limited Bitcoin Steakburger stamped with the crypto’s logo. A month later, it confirmed that Bitcoin payments would be deposited into a newly formed Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
Last month, it disclosed a $10 million increase in Bitcoin exposure tied to that reserve. Days later, the company arranged for its employees to receive Bitcoin bonuses, paying $0.27 in crypto per hour worked, with a two-year vesting period.
Steak ’n Shake holds roughly 161 BTC worth about $11 million, sitting about 26% below an average purchase price of $92,851, data from BitcoinTreasuries shows.
Steak ’n Shake is operated by publicly listed Biglari Holdings, meaning additional details on its financial performance and its Bitcoin exposure could surface through future regulatory filings.
While the move may appear quirky, the chain’s repeated capital allocations and employee compensation plans suggest a deeper operational commitment rather than a short-term marketing push.
“If more businesses align with freedom and sovereignty, we’ll be heading in the right direction,” Samuel Patt, co-founder of Bitcoin tech firm op_net, told Decrypt. Still, merchant demand for Bitcoin as a payment method will “require either network scaling conversations or better Lightning network infrastructure to be built,” Patt added.
Steak n’ Shake appears to be an “outlier” as “demand for Bitcoin as payments has fallen significantly,” Patt said. That could change as demand builds when large merchants prove Bitcoin works in practice, giving others a model to follow, he added.
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