In brief
- Steak ‘n Shake will accept Bitcoin nationwide starting May 16.
- The rollout gives over 100 million customers a crypto payment option.
- Few chains have gone beyond pilots, marking the development as a rare full-scale adoption.
Bitcoin is coming to the drive-thru.
American fast food chain Steak ‘n Shake said Thursday it will begin accepting the world’s largest crypto at all of its U.S. locations starting May 16, giving its more than 100 million customers the option to pay for milkshakes and burgers in BTC.
“The movement is just beginning,” the company posted on X.
Unlike high-margin retailers, fast food chains run on thin margins and high volume, making Steak ‘n Shake’s Bitcoin rollout a real-world stress test for the crypto’s speed, cost, and usability at scale.
The integration was initially teased in March, when the chain posed a question on social media: “Should Steak ‘n Shake accept Bitcoin?” which drew engagement from figures like former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
Since then, the company has built momentum around crypto-curious marketing, culminating in Thursday’s formal announcement.
Steak ‘n Shake has also leaned into Bitcoin’s cultural iconography, previously tweeting an image of a Mars-bound cargo ship stamped with the Bitcoin logo in reference to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vocal promotion of beef tallow and Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s interplanetary aspirations.
The Bitcoin play
Several major food and beverage chains have experimented with crypto payments over the past decade, though many of those efforts have been discontinued, scaled back, or confined to narrow pilots.
Starbucks allowed customers to reload their digital wallets using Bitcoin via the Bakkt app, a feature launched in 2021 that converts BTC into dollars before it reaches the retailer.
Chipotle followed suit in mid-2022, partnering with digital payments firm Flexa to accept over 90 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana, at hundreds of U.S. locations, also using automatic conversion into fiat at the point of sale.
Subway, one of the earliest adopters in the space, trialed Bitcoin payments as far back as 2013 at select franchises.
Some locations reintroduced the option in later years, particularly in crypto-friendly cities, but no system-wide implementation has been announced.
Outside the U.S., several fast food giants have turned to crypto as a hedge against local currency instability or as a nod to emerging digital economies.
In Venezuela, where inflation has driven interest in dollar alternatives, Burger King partnered with Latin American crypto firm Cryptobuyer in 2020 to enable Bitcoin and altcoin payments across several locations. However, that was only experimental and short-lived.
In El Salvador, where Bitcoin was made legal tender in 2021, Pizza Hut became one of the first mainstream outlets to accept the crypto.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
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