I’ve read a lot of “crypto adoption” headlines over the years, but most of them are either pilots, PR stunts, or integrations that quietly die after a month. That’s why Steak ’n Shake caught my attention: this isn’t just accepting Bitcoin—it’s using Bitcoin payments to change how the business captures value, and the early numbers are exactly the kind of thing I watch when I’m trying to separate hype from real traction.
Over roughly eight months after rolling out Bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network, Steak ’n Shake reported a ~15% increase in same-store sales, and they’ve publicly tied part of that momentum to crypto-friendly customers.
What they actually did (and why it matters)
Most merchants that “accept crypto” still treat it like a novelty payment rail: customers pay in crypto, the merchant instantly converts to fiat, end of story.
Steak ’n Shake took a different route:
They began accepting Bitcoin payments across locations where permitted in mid-May 2025, using the Lightning Network.
They stated that Bitcoin payments would be allocated directly to a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, rather than being converted into cash.
In January 2026, they announced a $10 million BTC purchase for that reserve—about ~105 BTC at the time.
That last step is the big one. It turns point-of-sale behavior into a treasury strategy—basically building a loop where customer adoption can translate into long-term balance sheet exposure, without needing to issue stock or play the “corporate leverage” game some public companies rely on.
The hidden killer feature: lower payment costs
In restaurants, margins are thin. Payment fees are one of those silent leaks that compound every single day.
At the Bitcoin 2025 conference, Steak ’n Shake’s COO Dan Edwards said the chain reduced payment processing fees by around 50% versus traditional credit card rails after enabling Lightning payments.
And the line that really shows the intent behind the move:
“When customers choose to pay in bitcoin… we are saving about 50% in our processing fees.”
That’s not ideology. That’s unit economics.
If a business can cut payment costs meaningfully, the benefit is immediate: either higher margins, more room for promotions, or more budget for reinvesting into the product (food quality, staffing, operations).
This wasn’t just a slow rollout—there was real usage early
Edwards also claimed that on the first day of launch, about 1 out of every 500 Bitcoin transactions globally happened at Steak ’n Shake locations.
Even if you treat that as “conference-stage framing,” it still signals something important: the integration wasn’t dead on arrival. People actually used it.
Marketing that’s native to the culture (and surprisingly smart)
Steak ’n Shake didn’t stop at “we accept BTC.” They pushed campaigns that made the payment method feel like a community event.
They partnered with Fold to run promos that offered customers $5 worth of Bitcoin as a reward through the Fold app.
That approach matters because it does two things at once:
It creates a reason to try the payment rail (incentive + novelty)
It turns a normal purchase into a “my first BTC” moment
That’s how adoption really spreads—through everyday rituals, not whitepapers.
How this differs from the “corporate BTC playbook”
A lot of corporate Bitcoin stories are basically capital market machines: raise money, buy BTC, repeat. Steak ’n Shake’s approach is smaller in size but more interesting in design.
Their $10M position is modest compared to the broader universe of companies holding Bitcoin on balance sheets, and reporting notes there are hundreds of firms holding BTC in some form.
What’s different here is how they’re building it:
Payments → reserve (no forced conversion)
Cost savings → operational breathing room
Promotions → customer acquisition
Reserve → strategic narrative
Also, multiple reports note the company hasn’t published a full breakdown isolating how much of the sales lift is directly attributable to Bitcoin payments versus other operational factors—so I treat the sales figure as a strong signal, but not a clean causal proof.
Where Binance fits in (and why I think Binance deserves credit)
This is the part people skip: adoption doesn’t scale without rails. A merchant can accept Bitcoin, but users need easy ways to access, move, and actually use it in the real world. That’s exactly where Binance has been building quietly and consistently.
1) Binance made Lightning practical for everyday users
Binance supports Bitcoin Lightning deposits and withdrawals, and even highlights that Lightning transactions typically come with significantly lower fees than on-chain BTC transfers.
That’s important because Lightning only becomes “real” when users can move between exchanges and spending environments smoothly—without getting wrecked on fees.
2) Binance Pay normalized crypto payments at scale
Binance Pay has positioned itself as a low-cost, borderless crypto payments layer for users and merchants.
Binance also reported massive merchant expansion for Binance Pay in 2025, and noted that stablecoins dominated B2C payment activity—showing that Binance isn’t just chasing a narrative; it’s building for actual transaction behavior.
So when I look at Steak ’n Shake moving into Lightning payments and treasury allocation, I don’t see an isolated story. I see a broader payments shift where platforms like Binance are doing the heavy lifting on infrastructure, UX, and access—so merchants can take the leap with less friction.
And honestly, Binance deserves praise here: they’ve been one of the few major players that consistently treats payments as a real product category, not just a side feature.
The bigger takeaway I’m watching
To me, this Steak ’n Shake story is less about “fast food loves Bitcoin” and more about a pattern:
Lightning makes costs competitive
Merchants get fee relief
Customers get a reason to pay in crypto
Treasuries start treating BTC like strategic inventory
Platforms like Binance make the rails usable at scale
That’s what real adoption looks like: not a single moonshot announcement, but a chain of small, practical incentives that make the behavior repeatable.
My final view
I’m not calling this a guaranteed template for every restaurant. But I am calling it one of the clearest real-world examples we’ve seen recently where Bitcoin payments weren’t just “accepted”—they were integrated into strategy, backed by treasury action, and supported by measurable cost improvements.
And when I connect it to #Binance —Lightning support, merchant rails, and payment infrastructure—it reinforces my belief that the next wave of crypto growth won’t be purely speculative.
It’ll be transactional.
It’ll be boring.
And that’s exactly why it’ll last.
