Customers will receive 15% of the value of their purchase back in BTC — however, their transaction must be completed using Cash App's debit card.
Shake Shack is starting to offer Bitcoin rewards in the hope that free cryptocurrency will lure younger diners to visit the burger chain, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper reports that customers will receive 15% of the value of their purchase back in BTC — however, their transaction must be completed using Cash App's debit card.
To put this offer into context, spending $20 in a Shake Shack would result in a $3 Bitcoin reward.
Shake Shack told the newspaper that there appears to have been little interest in cryptocurrencies as a payment method among its customers. However, a lot of this may be linked to the technical hurdles associated with transacting in Bitcoin — not to mention the digital asset's volatility.
The experiment is going to take place between now and in the middle of March — and if successful, Shake Shack says it may prolong the rewards program or accept crypto as a payment method. The chain's chief financial officer Amrita Ahuja told the publication:
"You're always trying to place your bets on those things that truly will be meaningful and not waste resources on the ones that won't."
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Growing Interest
All of this comes after research from Visa suggested that 57% of consumers want to earn cryptocurrencies via a rewards program — and analysts believe this could deliver some much-needed modernization to loyalty schemes.
It could also serve as a powerful tool for adoption — allowing shoppers to gain exposure to digital assets in a risk-free way, and without having to make a purchase themselves.
The concept of receiving crypto back after making a purchase isn't new, and a number of major brands have already enlisted with the Bitcoin-focused platform Lolli, including eBay.
Last year, Grubhub announced that it would allow hungry crypto enthusiasts to earn crypto rewards — with new users getting $5 in BTC after their first order, and $1 in BTC for every purchase after that.
Lolli was founded back in March 2018 — and for evidence of why crypto rewards could prove fruitful for consumers, consider this: $10 in Bitcoin three years ago would be worth over $100 today.
