Steak ’n Shake Buys $10M in Bitcoin After Testing Lightning Payments

Ben Graham · 6 horas atrás

Will 2026 be the year of the “Bitcoin Standard”? Looks like so. Institutional adoption started when Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy started adding Bitcoin to its balance sheet. After four years of consistency, the US tech firm is now the largest holder of BTC among public companies. MicroStrategy holds more Bitcoin than the US, at least from public data, and even China.

Given the benefits the MicroStrategy stock got after Saylor chose Bitcoin, many public companies are lining up, looking to copy their strategy. Whether they will succeed or not largely depends on how BTC and the next 100X crypto firms perform. At the moment, though, the Bitcoin price is steady, and increasingly, if political fires diminish, bulls are looking for a solid close above $100,000.

Among the firms adopting Bitcoin is Steak ’n Shake. On January 17, they just bought $10M worth of Bitcoin for its corporate treasury, months after rolling out Lightning Network payments across US stores.

https://twitter.com/SteaknShake/status/2012346855451931045

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Steak ’n Shake Buys $10M of Bitcoin: What You Need To Know

By adding BTC, Steak ‘n Shake is publicly declaring that the digital gold is a business tool. Price gains from this investment would only be secondary to their mission. And coming from a company that has been selling burgers for 91 years, this crypto endorsement matters.

The chain bought roughly 105 BTC and added it to what it calls a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Effectively, they stopped converting customer Bitcoin payments into dollars and started saving them instead. Steak ‘n Shake is committing to a “full-stack” Bitcoin model where every dollar’s worth of BTC received from customers via the Lightning Network is funneled directly into this reserve rather than being converted back to cash.

Steak ’n Shake began accepting Bitcoin via the Lightning Network in May 2025. Lightning is a fast and cheap layer built on top of Bitcoin, similar to using a debit card instead of wiring money. The company says this cut payment fees by nearly +50% compared to credit cards. Lower fees meant more breathing room on margins. Same-store sales climbed in the months after launch. That jump helps explain why management felt comfortable stacking Bitcoin instead of cash.

The chain described the Bitcoin purchase as part of a “self-sustaining loop.” The idea is that Bitcoin adoption drives more customer traffic, which increases sales, which then grows the Bitcoin reserve. This reserve acts as a “financial backstop” that allows the company to reinvest in food quality and store upgrades without raising menu prices.

To make paying with Bitcoin even more attractive, they partnered with Fold, a Bitcoin rewards app, to offer $5 in BTC when customers bought Bitcoin-themed meals. That sounds gimmicky, but it teaches a habit. People earn Bitcoin, then watch it move, instead of ignoring it.

https://twitter.com/Fundamentals21m/status/1996219912910508075

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The “Bitcoin Rush”

When a firm like Steak ‘n Shake buys Bitcoin, it is not about price speculation but real-world usage. When a national restaurant chain saves money using Bitcoin, it challenges the idea that crypto has no practical value. Out of this, there is a lesson: Adoption sticks when it improves a business. Steak ’n Shake did not add Bitcoin because it sounded cool, but because it cost less to accept and helped sales.

They are surely not the last to adopt Bitcoin. What we know is this: Every time a corporation buys and holds Bitcoin, it reduces the “liquid supply” available on exchanges. This creates a supply-demand imbalance that typically drives prices higher over the long term.

https://twitter.com/Vivek4real_/status/1915445342587207706

This also feeds the broader story of institutions moving into crypto. Over 200 companies now hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets. Steak ’n Shake’s $10M is small compared to giants like Strategy, but the use case is different. What’s more? Institutions currently manage over $124Bn of spot Bitcoin ETFs. Between January 12 and 15, they bought over $1.5Bn of BTC-backed shares via issuers like BlackRock and Fidelity.