Bitcoin to the rescue! – Since the start of the global pandemic in March 2020, catering has not been on its plate. Drop in attendance, lack of support from the States: there is panic in the kitchen. For some, Bitcoin has emerged as the solution to earning a crust. Thus, the restaurant chain Tahini invests its cash in Bitcoin, in March 2020. The icing on the cake: its crypto-asset strategy is successful!
Bitcoin à la carte
The pandemic, the confinements: these last two years have put the spleen in the short broth at all the restoration. In search of innovation to bounce back, some restaurants are turning to bitcoin.
This is the case of the Middle Eastern restaurant chain Tahini led by the Hamam brothers. She owned 3 restaurants in London at the start of the pandemic, and now she has one more in London, and 9 in Canada, according to Cointelegraph.
“So every time we have a new restaurant we don’t have to sell our Bitcoin to fund this expansion. We try to operate conservatively. We never have to sell our Bitcoin and just keep accumulating on our cash. »
Aly Hamam, co-owner of Tahini’s Restauration
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The Bitcoin recipe: “a much better alternative to cash savings”
Bitcoin hits the table. It delights its holders and the recipe is good for restaurateurs. In one article published on January 18, 2022 by the Toronto Star, the owners of the restaurant chain explain that Bitcoin is “a much better alternative to cash savings”.
“We transitioned to the company’s balance sheet on a Bitcoin standard in August 2020 and since then have increased our initial investment by over 300%. (…) It really did its job of protecting us against inflation and it worked as we expected. »
Aly Hamam, co-owner of Tahini’s Restauration
The boss of the Tahini restaurants even explains that this investment has enabled them to bring 3 restaurants up to date, in addition to those he has opened. In 2021, the catering company obtained $8 million in revenue (double the previous year). By the end of 2022, the objective of the two entrepreneurial brothers is tohave 25 restaurants across the Atlantic.
Between regulation and Bitcoin: the rag is burning
However, caution should be exercised. The purchase of the BTC and the returns obtained were made at the right time, at the right temperature. The price of Bitcoin in March 2020 was $5000, $12000 in August (the investment period of our entrepreneurs) and $68,000 at its peak in 2022. The investment is therefore quickly profitable for our restaurateurs.
But, the rag burns between Bitcoin and regulation, as usual. Ontario, for example, still for the sake of regulation, don’t drop the bunch. The Securities Commission has cracked down on crypto exchanges operating in the region (notably Binance and Kucoin). Bitfinex, in the same dynamic, announces on 01/14 to close the accounts of its customers living in Ontario no later than March 1, 2022.
Tahini does not accept bitcoin payments. But they offer automatic Bitcoin terminals to buy tokens in all their restaurants and educate their customers in a region that seems hermetic to cryptocurrencies.
Even though the examples seem to show that the strategy could work, Bitcoin still has its work cut out for it. Regulation threatens positive initiatives around the king of cryptocurrencies. The restaurateurs themselves, get involved in their onions. They continue to develop their business by allowing their customers to obtain Bitcoins at will.
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