American fast food chain Steak ‘n Shake has announced that all hourly employees will receive a Bitcoin bonus starting on March 1st.

Steak ‘n Shake Integrates Bitcoin Bonus Payments

Steak ‘n Shake will pay all hourly employees at its company-operated restaurants a bonus in Bitcoin for every hour of work, as revealed by the company’s official X handle. Steak ‘n Shake, primarily based in the United States, is a fast food chain that mainly serves burgers and milkshakes, with its flagship item being the Steakburger. Back in May 2025, the firm opened itself to Bitcoin, allowing customers to pay at all its locations using the cryptocurrency.

Last Friday, Steak ‘n Shake provided an update on the scheme, noting that same-store sales have dramatically increased for the company since it started accepting BTC. The firm added that all of its BTC sales go into its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR) and announced that it expanded this reserve by an additional $10 million in notional value in that same update.

“We have created a self-sustaining system — growing same-store sales that grow the SBR,” wrote the company. “Improving food quality expands Steak n Shake’s reach and leverages Bitcoin into a new and delicious dimension.” Now, it seems Steak ‘n Shake has taken its BTC acceptance a step further with the employee bonus integration.

According to the announcement, all hourly employees will receive $0.21 BTC for every hour worked. However, only workers who have passed a two-year vesting period will be able to collect their digital asset pay.

Steak ‘n Shake credited Fold for providing assistance on the initiative. Fold is a financial services platform that offers, among other features, a debit card allowing users to earn BTC rewards on payments.

The Bitcoin bonus program is set to go live on March 1st. “We take care of our employees; they, in turn, take care of customers; and the results take care of themselves,” said Steak ‘n Shake.

In some other news, institutional demand for Bitcoin has remained strong recently, according to CryptoQuant founder and CEO Ki Young Ju. To track the behavior of these large entities, Young Ju has referred to the supply of addresses carrying between 100 and 1,000 BTC.

“US custody wallets typically hold 100-1,000 BTC each,” explained the CryptoQuant founder. “Excluding exchanges and miners, this gives a rough read on institutional demand.” As the chart below shows, the supply of this investor segment has shown significant growth in recent months.

In total, Bitcoin wallets in the 100 to 1,000 tokens range have collectively added 577,000 BTC (roughly worth $51.5 billion) to their holdings over the past year. So far, this accumulation hasn’t shown signs of slowing down.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $89,200, down 6% in the last seven days.

Bitcoin Magazine

Fast-Food Chain Steak ‘n Shake to Pay Hourly Workers a Bitcoin Bonus

Fast-food chain Steak ‘n Shake is rolling out a bitcoin bonus program for hourly workers, deepening its embrace of bitcoin just days after disclosing a $10 million bitcoin purchase for its corporate treasury.

Starting March 1, hourly employees at company-operated Steak ’n Shake locations will earn a bitcoin bonus worth $0.21 for every hour worked. The rewards will vest after two years, meaning workers must remain employed for that period before they can access the accumulated bitcoin.

The bonus is roughly equivalent to about 1% of the U.S. federal minimum wage and will be administered in partnership with Fold, a bitcoin rewards application.

Employees will continue to receive their regular wages in dollars, with the bitcoin component treated as an additional incentive rather than a replacement for cash pay.

The move builds on Steak ‘n Shake’s broader crypto strategy, which began in 2025 when the burger chain started accepting bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network at all U.S. locations. 

At the time, company executives said the integration reduced card processing fees by roughly half and helped attract younger customers. Same-store sales rose more than 10% in the second quarter of 2025, according to company comments.

Steak ‘n Shake loves bitcoin 

Last week, Steak ‘n Shake disclosed that it had added $10 million worth of bitcoin to its balance sheet, marking one of the more significant treasury allocations to the asset by a consumer-facing restaurant brand. 

The company has also leaned into bitcoin-themed marketing, including the launch of a limited-time “Bitcoin Meal” in October that includes a small donation to open-source bitcoin development.

The hourly bonus rate references bitcoin’s fixed supply cap of 21 million coins, a symbolic nod frequently used in crypto culture. 

At current prices, a worker putting in 30 hours a week would earn roughly $327 worth of bitcoin per year under the program, assuming a stable bitcoin price.

Last year, a company executive said that Bitcoin transactions were already outperforming expectations.

“The day we launched Bitcoin, 1 out of every 500 bitcoin transactions in the world happened at Steak ‘n Shake,” Executive Dan Edwards said at the Bitcoin Conference. 

“Bitcoin is faster than credit cards, and when customers choose to pay in Bitcoin, we’re saving 50% in processing fees,” said Edwards. “That makes Bitcoin a win for the customer, a win for us, and a win for the Bitcoin community.” 

This post Fast-Food Chain Steak ‘n Shake to Pay Hourly Workers a Bitcoin Bonus first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.