Bitcoin Investment Can Save Middle Eastern Restaurant Chain In Canada

Investing in bitcoin could save the restaurant business in Canada. (photo; doc. unsplash)

JAKARTA – More than a year after a Middle Eastern restaurant chain based in Canada converted its fiat money reserves into Bitcoin. According to the restaurant owner, this move has helped and saved their business during the pandemic.

According to a Canadian Toronto Star report, Tuesday 18 January, when restaurant owners Tahini Aly and Omar Hamam and their cousin Ahmed, decided to convert the company's savings to Bitcoin (BTC) in August 2020 because it offered a “much better alternative to saving cash, “The price of crypto assets at that time was approximately 12.000 US dollars. Aly Hamam reports businesses have benefited from early crypto investments.

“We moved to the company's balance sheet with Bitcoin standards in August 2020, and since then, we've gone up more than 300 percent on our initial investment,” Hamam said, as quoted by Cointelegraph. "It's really doing its job of protecting us from inflation and it's working as we wanted it to."

The price of BTC rose to an all-time high of over USD 67.000 in November before dropping to USD 41.729 today. Even though the company's sales fell 80% in a week at the start of the pandemic, Hamam said crypto investments have allowed them to expand from three restaurant locations to nine at a time when many in the industry are facing financial difficulties. They even plan to increase that number to 25 by the end of the year.

“We keep working capital for about three to six months in cash, and then the rest goes into Bitcoin,” Hamam said. “So every time we do an expansion, we are not forced to sell our Bitcoins to fund that expansion. We try to operate conservatively, where we never have to sell our Bitcoins and we continue to build up our treasury.”

None of the Tahini locations in Ontario currently accept BTC or other cryptocurrencies for payments, but they are each home to Bitcoin ATMs, which allow customers to purchase tokens before, during, or after a meal.

At the time of the initial investment – the amount remains unclear – Hamam signaled businesses would continue to use Bitcoin as an indefinite reserve asset if there was no “need for fiat.”

“We will continue to strive to make the best food we can… and with Bitcoin, we also want to help people financially,” said Hamam.

Restaurants like Tahini do not appear to be a target for regulators in the Canadian province. This is certainly different from local crypto companies that are always being chased by the authorities there. The Ontario Securities Commission has cracked down on crypto exchanges operating in the region, including Binance, OKEx, Bybit, KuCoin, and Polo Digital Assets.

On January 14, Bitfinex announced it would close accounts for Ontario-based customers who do not have balances on the platform, while many users “will no longer have access to any services” starting March 1.