How a Canadian Fast-Food Chain Beat Inflation with Bitcoin: The Tahini Strategy

The Bitcoin-Backed Fast-Food Empire

I’ll admit: when I first heard “a burger chain investing 70% of reserves in Bitcoin,” I thought it was either satire or an elaborate hoax. But Tahini—yes, those guys from Ontario serving falafel and tahini bowls—has done exactly that since 2020. As a quant who builds LSTM models for volatility prediction, I find this case study fascinating not just because it works—but because it shouldn’t. Yet here we are.

From Egyptian Devaluation to Crypto Awakening

The founder’s backstory isn’t just emotional—it’s statistical. Ali Hamam watched Egypt lose ~85% of its currency value over two decades. That’s not inflation; that’s economic erosion at warp speed. When he saw BTC drop from \(10k to \)4k during March 2020, he didn’t panic—he did his homework.

“I fell into the rabbit hole,” he said. And so did everyone who followed his lead.

Dollar-Cost Averaging: The Ultimate Anti-Fragile Strategy

Let me be blunt: if you’re not using DCA for long-term assets, you’re playing finance with your eyes closed.

Tahini doesn’t invest fixed amounts or percentages—they adapt monthly based on cash flow, expenses, and reinvestment needs. But they never stop buying.

That’s what makes this strategy so powerful: consistency beats timing.

Even if you started buying at $70k per BTC in late 2021 (peak bull), repeated purchases via DCA would still have brought you back into profit by mid-2023—even before the recent rally.

Why Selling Is Not Failure—It’s Discipline

Some think holding means never selling. Wrong. Tahini sells only when business demands funding—for marketing campaigns or expansion—but then uses the same DCA logic to reaccumulate.

This is genius-level financial engineering: turn volatility into opportunity without gambling on direction.

When inflation hits? You don’t hedge with T-bills—you hedge with scarcity-backed digital gold.

The POS Reality Check: You Can’t Pay With Lightning… Yet

But here’s where most crypto startups fail—the hardware layer. Most point-of-sale systems are walled gardens built around Visa/Mastercard rails. They don’t accept Bitcoin directly due to closed APIs and legacy architecture.

Tahini tried but gave up after realizing their POS couldn’t even handle basic reporting features while integrating BTC payments. So they pivoted smartly:

• Partnered with Canadian Bitcoin ATM operator Bitcoin Well,
• Placed ATMs in 10 locations,
• Took profits in sats,
• Accumulated over $4K per store in BTC over time (now worth tens of thousands).

cute? Yes. Practical? Absolutely—in this ecosystem, every sat counts.