The American hamburger chain Steak ’n Shake announced that same-store sales in July increased by about 16% year-on-year, attributing the growth to loyal customers and the Bitcoin payment ecosystem.

By: Liam Akiba Wright

Translated by: Chopper, Foresight News

The American fast-food chain Steak ’n Shake stated that same-store sales in its U.S. locations grew by 16% year-on-year in July, crediting a portion of this success to Bitcoin. However, one key piece of information that Steak ’n Shake did not disclose is: how many customers actually paid with Bitcoin?

This raises a question: has the PR value that Bitcoin brings to the brand now surpassed the actual commercial value it creates?

On July 10, this hamburger brand issued a statement indicating that the revenue increase for the month up to the time of publication is based on the 16% growth from the same period last year. The brand thanked loyal customers on one hand and specifically acknowledged the group of Bitcoin holders, stating that Bitcoin payments incur lower fees compared to credit cards, with the saved costs fully invested in upgrading to healthier ingredient sources.

The 16% sales increase was announced unilaterally by Steak ’n Shake, but the brand has never disclosed the following critical information: the number of customers who checked out using Bitcoin, the total amount spent, and the scale of transaction fee savings brought by using Bitcoin payments.

Without this data, it is impossible to discern whether the revenue growth stems from Bitcoin payments or other factors such as concurrent marketing activities, product price adjustments, promotional activities, menu updates, and store structural adjustments.

Steak ’n Shake publicly stated: Anyone who questions the value of Bitcoin is making a huge mistake.

Steak ’n Shake Only Demonstrates Cost Advantages of Individual Transactions, Lacking Overall Data

Steak ’n Shake launched Bitcoin payment at all U.S. locations in May 2025, and subsequently announced that the Bitcoins received in stores would be classified as strategic reserve assets. These two actions have made Bitcoin both a brand label and an optional payment method at the checkout.

Even though the number of consumers actually paying with Bitcoin is quite low, supporting Bitcoin payments can attract crypto enthusiasts to the stores; moreover, the processing cost of each Bitcoin order is indeed lower than that of traditional credit cards. However, the brand has never disclosed how much actual transaction volume is routed through the Bitcoin channel.

As of July 16, Steak ’n Shake has still not disclosed the number of Bitcoin orders, total transaction amounts, and actual total savings from transaction fees, nor has it provided single-store dimension data to support the repurchase rate of Bitcoin users or the impact of promotional activities on payment penetration rates. The lack of data prevents the quantification of the real operational gains brought by Bitcoin payments.

At the 2026 Bitcoin Conference, Steak ’n Shake executive Michael Boes stated that the processing cost of a single Bitcoin transaction is approximately 50% lower than that of traditional credit cards; if all credit card customers switched to Bitcoin payments, the store could save about $6 million in fees annually.

He also mentioned that after launching Bitcoin payments, the brand saw an additional customer flow of approximately 2 million visits throughout the year. However, this sharing did not prove that the new customer flow was brought about by Bitcoin payments, nor did it provide statistical evidence for attributing customer flow.

The details disclosed by Steak ’n Shake regarding Bitcoin payments are helpful: menu prices are still listed in dollars, the checkout process involves third-party Bitcoin payment service providers, and the store does not charge customers additional payment transaction fees; however, users may still incur wallet fees, on-chain network fees, exchange rate differences, and costs from currency fluctuations.

Existing information can only prove that Bitcoin orders have an individual transaction fee advantage, but it cannot demonstrate that the volume of orders through this channel is sufficient to generate substantial cost savings.

Revenue Growth Was Already Present

Biglari Holdings, the parent company of Steak ’n Shake, had already shown in its financial report that the sales recovery trend for the brand had formed well before the current July revenue announcement. As of the fiscal quarter ending March 31, the first-quarter financial report showed that same-store sales in company-owned locations increased by 10%, and those of franchised locations rose by about 13%.

First-quarter marketing expenses rose from $3.232 million during the same period last year to $5.427 million, an increase of 67.9%; the cost of ingredients in company-owned stores accounted for 30% of revenue, increasing to 31.4%, primarily due to a complete switch to cooking with pure beef tallow.

There were also notable changes in store structure. As of March 31, the number of company-owned locations decreased from 146 last year to 128; the number of franchised stores increased from 172 to 182, while traditional franchised locations decreased from 104 to 96.

In Biglari's 2025 letter to shareholders, a full-year same-store sales growth of 10.2% was disclosed, with growth attributed to product quality upgrades, cash register and self-service ordering machine renovations, improvements in operational efficiency, and optimizations in owner-operated models, with no mention of Bitcoin throughout.

During the revenue statistics period in July, Steak ’n Shake also rolled out several promotional activities. Throughout the month, the price of two signature meal deals was $17.76, with free beef tallow fries; just hours before announcing the favorable revenue news on July 10, it had just publicly announced that customers could receive fries for free without a minimum purchase on the same day, and Steak ’n Shake did not clarify the precise cutoff point for revenue statistics.

The overlay of multiple variables makes it difficult to isolate Bitcoin's contribution to growth. Marketing promotions, brand pricing, menu exposure, promotional activities, operational reforms at stores, and adjustments in the franchise structure will all jointly influence store traffic and revenue along with the Bitcoin payment label.

Users in the Reddit Bitcoin community have commented that the store's support for Bitcoin payments prompted them to make their first in-store purchase. However, users in the Bitcoin subsection, as well as those in the skeptical cryptocurrency category, Buttcoin, pointed out that the increase in traffic may come from value positioning, the appeal of the menu items, and consumer diversion due to store closures, suggesting that actual use of Bitcoin may be very low. These user comments are merely case studies and can only indicate that Bitcoin can attract traffic and shape brand image, but cannot prove the actual scale of payments.

If Offline Merchants Want to Replicate This Model, They Must Improve Data Disclosure

If Steak ’n Shake hopes that offline merchants will view this Bitcoin management strategy as a replicable growth template, it must subsequently disclose data linking payment implementation to operating results.

Key disclosure indicators include total Bitcoin order numbers and transaction proportions, total sales through the Bitcoin channel, and the overall actual savings from transaction fees. Data segmented by store and user stratification can visually reflect whether stores with higher Bitcoin penetration rates have different performance. Repurchase data can distinguish between one-time novelty visits and long-term consistent use. Promotional activity data can peel away the interference of promotional events on payment penetration rates.

These data should reveal whether Bitcoin has indeed brought increased traffic, reduced payment costs, or both. A cross-comparison of marketing inputs, product pricing, traffic, profits, menu updates, and franchise store operation data is necessary to calculate the true contribution ratio of Bitcoin to revenue growth.

At this stage, Steak ’n Shake has only announced an impressive same-store sales increase while explaining the cost advantage of individual Bitcoin transactions. The brand itself firmly has a bullish view on Bitcoin; if Bitcoin transactions indeed had a substantial impact on July revenue growth, then publishing complete transaction data would be a logical next step.