Steak 'n Shake Sees Double-Digit Sales Growth After Accepting Bitcoin Payments

Steak 'n Shake's decision to accept Bitcoin payments has yielded significant results, with franchise partners seeing a double-digit sales growth of 19% this quarter alone.

The company's Chief MAHA Officer, Michael Boes, described the chain's improving performance since it began accepting Bitcoin with consistent figures of 11% and 15% growth for same-store sales in Q2 2025 and Q3 2025, respectively. However, Biglari Holdings' regulatory filings reported increasing sales without checking how Bitcoin contributed to it.

Despite the lack of clear causation, Steak 'n Shake is conducting a test to find out if old-fashioned retailers can use the advantages of Lightning, cheap processing fees, crypto-friendly customers, and Bitcoin reserves to develop a functioning model for other merchants to follow. The company has seen significant cost savings by implementing Bitcoin payments via the Lightning network.

The bigger question remains whether other merchants will follow Steak 'n Shake's lead as stablecoins take over the broader crypto-payments market. Stablecoins like USDC are becoming increasingly popular, handling 22.1% of crypto payments in H1 2026, ahead of Bitcoin at 21.0%.