Rachel Warren

You know, they process nearly $2 trillion in annual transaction volume.

You've got the Braintree business, right?

That's the unbranded processing business for large corporate clients that could be really attractive to a potential buyer.

And even the incoming CEO, Enrique Lores, he has a history of breaking up complex businesses.

I mean, there's been some speculation that maybe he was even brought in to lead a sale or

or major structural overhaul.

So I do think this talk makes sense.

I mean, we're going to have to see if it's more than just rumors, but it is something that I think is intriguing and perhaps makes more sense for the business than say four or five years ago.

I do think it could make sense.

I mean, the important thing to remember is Stripe is really dominant in business-to-business and merchant infrastructure, but they really lack a direct consumer brand, which, of course, that's something that PayPal could provide.

I mean, for a long time, Stripe has really been known as this sort of digital bridge.

They allow businesses to accept payments over the internet and in person.

They handle that really complex technical and banking infrastructure.

They processed about $1.9 trillion in total payment volume in 2025.

That was up about 34% year over year.

It's a really, really robust business.

Obviously, there's the valuation gap.

They're reportedly valued about four times greater than what we currently see PayPal's valuation at.

Another thing that's kind of interesting is both Stripe and PayPal have been moving much more deeply into crypto rails.

So you could see how a merger could maybe create