US Chain Steak 'n Shake Says Bitcoin Payments Are Thriving

Popular US fast food chain Steak 'n Shake says it's adoption of Bitcoin payments at its domestic restaurants is going well. In-store sales have risen dramatically since debuting crypto payments in 2025, it said in a social media post. Late last year it revealed it had reached $10 million in a company Bitcoin fund, which is partly funded by Bitcoin payments at it's stores. The Indianapolis-based burger chain has other crypto innovations in mind for the business too.

Last year it also debuted a Bitcoin burger, with a BTC symbol branded into the burger bun. Steak 'n Shake employees will also be getting a BTC dividend for each hour worked, if the company fund ends the year having risen. 

Bit Burgers are a Hit with Customers, Apparently

Although the company did not reveal exactly how much its bottom line had been affected by the new payment adoption, it did say sales had increased by double-digit percentages in some locations. Independent estimates have put the chain at around 15% overall growth in the past year - which is significantly higher than the average growth for fast food restaurants in the US currently. 

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The Bitcoin Steakburger ($6.99) has also been integral to the promotion. The burger contains two steak patties, two slices of American cheese, pickles, onions, ketchup, and a toasted bun with the Bitcoin logo stamped on it. Payments were made via the Lightning Network, and 

Interestingly, Steak 'n Shake is far from the first place to debut a Bitcoin burger. Independent London, England-based outlet Crypto Burgers debuted its Bitcoin Burger in 2013 and claims to have sold more than $1 million of them since then. Although at £9.99 ($11.50) it costs significantly more than Steak 'n Shakes option. 

Company Holds $15M Worth of BTC in Strategic Reserve

In early 2026, Steak 'n Shake revealed it has $15 million in BTC reserves in a company fund, and that all proceeds of Bitcoin Steakburger sales and percentage of other BTC sales are being funded in to. It currently sits at around 175 BTC according to independent research on the blockchain. 

The company said if the fund has grown in value at the end of each year, employees will receive a BTC bonus of $0.27 worth of BTC for each hour worked. 

The adoption of BTC would have seen a short term spike in transactions as it also offered every customer $5 in BTC back on their first burger purchase. The burger chain also added that it saved 50% on transaction fees using the Lighting Network for BTC payments and that this was reflected in the promotional offer to kickstart the adoption. 

Steak 'n Shake is owned by publicly traded company Bilgari Holdings. The Dallas-based holding company's financials may soon provide more clues to exactly how this BTC adoption has worked out. 

Company Remains an Outlier but Proves BTC Can Work Commercially 

Everybody knows about the guy who bought two Papa John's pizzas for 10,000 BTC in 2010 - which would now be worth almost a billion dollars. Stories like that have cooled the market for real-world BTC consumer transactions somewhat. Crypto currently accounts for around 1% of retail transactions in the US, although online retail transactions are harder to track. 

However, in this case, albeit with heavy promotion, it seems to be something that is working out for the company. The market conditions may also be returning to some confidence. Many retail operations abandoned crypto payments after massive market swings in 2021 specifically, which is when adoption peaked at around 3% in the US and then began to fall. 

Since then though President Donald Trump has returned to office with bullish promises on integrating crypto in the US economy further, and adoption has been slowly increasing again.

Will Steak 'n Shakes BTC experiment succeed in the long term? It's hard to say. Early adoption could have been driven by social media bait and promotional incentives like the $5 rebait - but $5 million in profits is $5 million in profits at the end of the day.

The real taste test will be when Bilgari's next set of company reports are released, when the new measure can be looked at in retrospective detail. And also, what the BTC price is at one year after beginning payments. 

Tesla famously only accepted Bitcoin sales for one year before finding it too volatile, and data shows only a small percentage of retailers adopting crypto actually stick with it for years. Although it does happen. 

Interestingly, Steak 'n Shake mooted expanding into accepting Ethereum at its restaurants as well. But, in the end, it decided against the idea after social media followers voted against it in a poll.

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