Steak ‘n Shake’s Bitcoin bet posts double-digit sales growth

According to Steak ‘n Shake, the decision to accept Bitcoin payments has yielded significant results, with franchise partners seeing a 19% increase in sales this quarter alone.

The statement was released in its X post on September 8. While the story sounds great for the popularity of Bitcoin among retailers, it is still just a company announcement. In fact, there is no proof that Bitcoin played an important role in sales growth, as Biglari Holdings’ regulatory filings reported increasing sales without checking how Bitcoin contributed to it.

This distinction is important. In reality, 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 numbers the company is putting forward

At the Bitcoin 2026 Conference, Michael Boes, Chief MAHA Officer of Steak n’ Shake, described the company’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.

These figures were cited by him in the context of his argument that the chain had experienced a turnaround due to Bitcoin. However, the actual filings of Biglari Holdings provide even more exact, albeit differently categorized, figures.

According to Biglari’s Q2 2025 10-Q, the company achieved a same-store sales growth of 10.7%. Biglari’s Q3 2025 filing reported that the company’s domestic company-operated stores’ sales had grown by 15.6% while the franchise-partner units grew by 14.8%.

The annual report for 2025 stated that the total growth rates for company-operated restaurants was 10.5%, 10.1% for franchise-partner restaurants, and 10.2% when both categories of stores were merged together.

In the first quarter of 2026, same-store sales increased by 10.0% in the domestic market, whereas sales from franchise partners went up by approximately 13%. The figures were 11.9% in Q2 2026 for domestic sales and 14.5% for franchise partners.

Biglari published another filing with the SEC where the total increase amounted to 13.8% in domestic sales. With all the mentioned figures filed, the 19% is also significant, but it covers franchise-partner stores and has not yet been filed.

The difference becomes clearer when the figures are examined in two ways. The first chart displays figures that Steak ’n Shake has made public to market its sales linked to Bitcoin. The second chart shows more accurate data from Biglari’s filings, which show company-operated, franchise partner, and combined results.

Together, the two sets of data indicate that the momentum behind the sales is not an illusion, but the figures are not all reported on the same basis.

Why the causation claim is hard to nail down

While the growth is genuine, the contribution of Bitcoin is still unknown. The yearly report by Biglari attributes this growth in part to improved food quality and communication that the management claims “resonated with the public.” Meanwhile, there are reports that Steak ‘n Shake has not revealed how much Bitcoin revenue contributed to the company’s profit.

This makes Bitcoin another element of the larger recovery process of Steak n’ Shake rather than a simple case of an experimental variable. Nonetheless, Boes stated at the Bitcoin 2026 event that Bitcoin has become one of the main forces driving the process with the following phrase: “Bitcoin is real money made with real energy.”

How the Lightning setup actually saves money

The case related to costs is much easier to understand. Steak n Shake started accepting payments in Bitcoin via the Lightning network on May 16, 2025. The payment solution provider Speed reports the implementation being completed in all 393 locations in the USA, and quotes the then-COO Dan Edwards, who has also claimed Bitcoin payments decreased the company’s payment processing costs by 50% compared to the use of credit cards.

The cost is still high even if Bitcoin is not the cause of the sales surge. Notably, Square provides 0% processing fees for Bitcoin payments as part of its services, which indicates that payments via cheaper Bitcoin payment processing networks are becoming easier for mainstream businesses to test.

Steak ‘n Shake also channels Bitcoin payments made by customers into a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Cryptopolitan has reported earlier that the reserve has been linked with Bitcoin bonuses for hourly employees, which connects checkout, treasury management, and workforce incentives.

Thus, the strategy transcends being merely a way of payment. Steak ‘n Shake is combining Bitcoin-friendly branding, transaction savings, and treasury accumulation through its operations.

The bigger question: will merchants follow as stablecoins take over

The broader crypto-payments market is moving differently. CoinGate’s H1 2026 report put USDC at 22.1% of crypto payments, ahead of Bitcoin at 21.0%, while Lightning handled just 9.6% of BTC payments.

TRM Labs also found stablecoins driving retail adoption in markets such as Venezuela. That leaves Steak ‘n Shake as a useful test case, but not necessarily a template. Other retailers may copy its low-cost crypto checkout while choosing stablecoins or fiat settlement instead. 

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