How Bitcoin Payments Are Reshaping Retail Economics—and Why Steak 'n Shake's Breakthrough Matters

The fast-casual dining sector just witnessed a watershed moment. Steak 'n Shake’s integration of Bitcoin payments across the U.S., France, Monaco, and Spain—launched on May 16, 2025—has exposed a fundamental shift in how traditional retailers can optimize both customer acquisition and operational margins.

The Real Numbers Behind Steak 'n Shake’s Q2 Performance

In Q2 2025, Steak 'n Shake posted a 10.7% same-store sales increase, outpacing every major competitor in the U.S. fast-food landscape. McDonald’s, Domino’s, and Taco Bell all registered results between negative 7.1% and positive 6.1% during the same period. Parent company Biglari Holdings confirmed the figure, attributing part of the surge to its cryptocurrency payment initiative.

The Bitcoin rollout delivered immediate financial impact. Chief Operating Officer Dan Edwards disclosed that crypto transactions reduced payment processing fees by approximately 50% within two weeks of launch. On day one alone, the chain accounted for roughly 0.2% of all Bitcoin transactions globally—a telling metric for immediate user adoption.

Consider the scale: despite store count contracting from 628 locations in 2018 to 397 by May 2025, the payment infrastructure now serves a customer base exceeding 100 million across four countries. For a company navigating store closures, this represents a strategic pivot toward higher-value customer engagement rather than pure location expansion.

Why Retailers Are Rethinking Payment Infrastructure

Steak 'n Shake didn’t invent retail crypto adoption—but it may have perfected its execution. The precedents tell an instructive story:

Early movers faced momentum cliffs. Overstock.com accepted Bitcoin starting January 2014, generating $126,000 in sales within 22 hours—a 4.33% daily revenue lift. That trajectory proved unsustainable; crypto sales soon dropped below 1% of daily volume as initial enthusiasm evaporated.

Platform plays took a different approach. When Rakuten integrated Bitcoin across its global marketplace in 2015 (following a payment tech investment), the company positioned itself as forward-thinking but didn’t disclose direct sales impact. The move appeared more about brand positioning than revenue acceleration.

Luxury found a different angle. LVMH, Hublot, Tag Heuer, Gucci, and Balenciaga approached crypto not as primary payment rails but as engagement mechanisms. NFT experimentation and blockchain-based loyalty programs—like Lolli’s Bitcoin rewards partnerships with Nike and Sephora—focused on building community rather than replacing card networks.

The pattern reveals something critical: sustainable crypto adoption happens when it solves a genuine business problem, not when it chases trend momentum.

The Economics of Crypto Customers

Data from BitPay reveals a counterintuitive truth: 40% of customers using crypto for purchases are entirely new to the brand. Their average transaction value typically doubles that of conventional payment users.

A Deloitte-backed survey found that 93% of businesses accepting Bitcoin reported improvements in both revenue and brand perception. In luxury retail, the pattern becomes even more pronounced—crypto customers average $450 per order versus $200 for traditional shoppers.

This isn’t coincidental. Crypto adopters tend to be higher-income, more digitally native, and less price-sensitive. They’re willing to experiment with new brands, and they spend more per transaction.

Meanwhile, corporate-level adoption is taking a different form. Walmart and Amazon have evaluated stablecoins to reduce dependency on traditional card networks. GameStop and MicroStrategy treat Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset, reflecting a fundamental reorientation: digital assets as stores of value, not just payment mechanisms.

The Market Opportunity—And Its Constraints

Globally, over 560 million people hold crypto assets. Surveys indicate 65% express interest in using them for payments. In the U.S., 16% of adults have already made at least one purchase with digital assets, while 34% say they’d use crypto more frequently if adoption barriers fell.

Yet the current acceptance network remains compact: roughly 15,000 merchants worldwide accept Bitcoin, with about 2,300 in the U.S. spanning retail, dining, and entertainment. Brands like Burger King have sidestepped direct integration through gift card partnerships and third-party processors.

Growth projections suggest crypto payment usage could nearly double from 2025 to 2026. However, only about 2.6% of the global population is expected to transact in crypto during that window—reflecting the persistence of headwinds.

Price volatility, fragmented regulatory frameworks, and technical integration complexity continue to impose friction. The broader digital payments ecosystem expands faster: 82% of U.S. consumers used digital payments in 2023, up from 72% in 2020. That trajectory leaves room for crypto to grow without dominating.

Why Steak 'n Shake’s Model Could Become the Template

The company’s playbook demonstrates three critical principles:

First, address cost structure before chasing users. A 50% reduction in processing fees isn’t marketing theater—it’s a genuine margin expansion that justifies operational investment and enables competitive pricing.

Second, cultural fit matters more than technical novelty. Steak 'n Shake positioned Bitcoin as a payment option, not as a speculative asset or brand statement. Crypto-native users already think in those terms; the adoption felt natural rather than forced.

Third, scale quickly from day one. By rolling out across multiple geographies simultaneously and capturing 0.2% of global Bitcoin transaction volume on launch day, Steak 'n Shake signaled that crypto payments could function as mainstream infrastructure, not niche experimentation.

For traditional retailers contemplating payment modernization, the question has shifted. It’s no longer whether to accept Bitcoin, but how to integrate it in ways that reduce costs, attract high-value customers, and build genuine engagement rather than pursuing headlines.

Steak 'n Shake’s Q2 results suggest the answer: when crypto payments solve real business problems, customers respond. The next phase depends on whether other retailers can replicate that execution or whether Steak 'n Shake remains an outlier in an industry still learning to balance innovation with operational pragmatism.