Ryan Cohen is unwanted $55.5 billion unsolicited offer To absorb eBay into GameStop, the corporate world is doing a double take. Cohen’s idea sounds enticing on paper: He promises to cut $2 billion in bloated overhead, and immediately lift eBay’s GAAP diluted earnings from $4.26 to $7.79 in the first year.
But behind the flashy offer lies a massive hurdle: a highly speculative cash-and-stock structure that would require taking on $20 billion in new debt from TD Securities and significantly diluting GameStop stock to buy a company four times its size. Analysts and investors are highly skeptical, which is why eBay stock continues to trade well below Cohen’s bid price of $125.
eBay’s board doesn’t need a smaller, meme-fueled retailer to step in and aggressively trim its budget to find efficiencies. Instead, they can look to a realistic chart that proves that true operational efficiency is not found by eliminating marketing, but rather by upgrading the payment layer.
By taking a page from the broader digital asset ecosystem and looking at how a brand is legacy Steak and Shake Having revolutionized its business model, eBay can score a massive structural victory on its own terms.
Proof of Concept: Steak ‘n Shake Case Study
When national burger chain Steak ‘n Shake activated Bitcoin Lightning Network payments across its locations, it wasn’t just a marketing gimmick. Real world data has completely flipped the scenario on corporate retail finance:
Opportunity Cost: What This Math Means for eBay
Payments blind spot
eBay is an e-commerce giant, facilitating massive scale across its global marketplace. In its fiscal 2025 results, eBay reported steady momentum, but is still sticking to traditional payment rails. Because eBay runs its own internal payment infrastructure (eBay Managed Payments), it’s stuck swallowing huge transaction fees from legacy credit card cartels, and passing those costs on to sellers through a whopping 13.25% collection rate.
While eBay protects its net processing fees, traditional credit card networks (Visa, Mastercard, Amex) charge large digital merchants an average global interchange and processing fee of between 2.5% and 3.5%.
Assuming a standard merchant swipe fee of 3% across eBay’s massive $80 billion volume, replicating Steak ‘n Shake’s confirmed 50% reduction in processing costs reveals a staggering annual opportunity cost currently paid to the banking cartel:
- $80B (APR) x 3% (Estimated Legacy Rollover Fee) = $2.4 billion in friction
- $2.4 billion x 50% (lightning efficiency) = $1.2 billion annually
Closet blind spot
While eBay has let its $2.92 billion cash reserves sit in traditional low-yield Treasuries (resulting in a fundamental yield of just 12.23%), the opportunity cost of ignoring Bitcoin over the past three years has turned into a multi-billion-dollar boardroom error.
If eBay’s board had allocated 100% of those reserves to Bitcoin instead of hard cash, that treasury would have grown by a whopping 1,406%. Which represents A $5.02 billion unrealized gains That eBay left it entirely on the table.
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Old Credit Card Rails vs. Bitcoin Lightning Network
Instead of letting leveraged buyouts dictate its future, the native cryptocurrency payment layer is permanently restructuring eBay’s economics to benefit its 135 million active users (1.1).
| metric | Old payment systems | Bitcoin lightning layer | Operational impact |
| Withdraw expected processing | ~$2.4 billion | ~$1.2 billion | Instantly unlocks $1.2 billionwhich can be passed directly to sellers to expand their margins. |
| Leveling speed | 2 to 5 business days (1.1) | moment (seconds) (1.4) | Eliminate capital lock-up for millions of global small businesses. |
| Liability for Chargeback Fraud | Millions lost to ‘friendly fraud’ | $0.00 (irrevocable ledger) (1.5) | Complete mitigation of merchant losses through bank chargebacks. |
| Cross-border foreign exchange penalty | Friction charge from 3% to 5% (4.2) | 0% (Consolidated Settlement Assets) (1.5) | True frictionless international trade without banking borders. |
3 reasons why the push game beats Cohen’s takeover
1. It protects shareholders from volatile corporate debt
GameStop’s proposal relies on assembling an unconfirmed $20 billion financing letter and highly unpredictable meme stock shares to cover the massive acquisition. In comparison, integrating a decentralized payment protocol costs eBay almost nothing to implement. It expands profit margins organically without adding a single dollar of toxic corporate leverage to the balance sheet.
2. It empowers the lifeblood of eBay: sellers
Ryan Cohen intends to extract value by aggressively cutting $1.2 billion from eBay’s sales and marketing budget. Payment integration with advanced technology takes the opposite approach: it extracts value from banks. Giving the significant fee reduction back to energy sellers gives them a huge incentive to list their best inventory exclusively on eBay instead of going to independent storefronts or Amazon.
3. Automatically dominates the collectibles market
One huge pillar of GameStop’s acquisition logic is the use of 1,600 brick-and-mortar storefronts as physical centers to authenticate trading cards and luxury items. However, the high-end collectibles market is already deeply intertwined with the wealth of digital assets. Allowing global buyers to easily purchase a luxury watch or rare comic book locally via Bitcoin opens up a vast ecosystem of highly liquid global capital that a physical retail storefront cannot replicate.
The ultimate counter punch
GameStop is targeting eBay because it views the platform as a huge money-generating engine that has become technologically stagnant. Instead of letting a smaller company leverage itself to the max for an acquisition, eBay’s board could render GameStop’s cost-cutting thesis completely obsolete.
By using the retail industry blueprint to reform the payment layer, get rid of banking monopolies, and return Saving $1.2 billion annually To the market, eBay could post a historic increase in its profits, proving that it does not need a savior to control the future of digital commerce.
Disclaimer: This content was prepared on behalf of Bitcoin for businesses For informational purposes only. It reflects the author’s analysis and opinion and should not be relied upon as investment advice. Nothing in this article constitutes an offer, invitation or solicitation to buy, sell or subscribe for any security or financial product.
References
- (1.1) GameStop Investor Relations. (2026). GameStop is proposing to acquire eBay at a price of $125.00 per share. GameStop Investor Relations
- (1.2) Annie News. (2026). GameStop proposes to acquire eBay for $125 per share in cash and stock. Annie News
- (1.3) Bitcoin Magazine. (2026). Steak ‘n Shake says Bitcoin payments cut processing costs by 50%, saving $6 million annually. Bitcoin Magazine
- (1.4) CoinMedia via Binance Square. (2025). Steak ‘n Shake saves a lot with Bitcoin payments. Binance Square
- (1.5) reddit r/bitcoin. (2026). Steak ‘n Shake says Bitcoin payments cut processing costs by 50%, saving $6 million annually. Reddit
- (2.1) My city. (2026). GameStop’s ridiculous bid to buy eBay for $56 billion looks bad. My city
- (2.2) Digital transactions. (2026). How Steak ‘n Shake Cuts Costs Using Cryptocurrency?. Digital transactions
- (2.3) MyBroadband. (2026). GameStop offers R930bn to eBay. MyBroadband
- (2.4) reddit r/bitcoin. (2026). Starting March 1, Steak n Shake will give all hourly employees at company-operated restaurants a Bitcoin bonus.. Reddit
- (3.1) Bitcoin Magazine. (2026). Steak ‘n Shake Company Teases ‘Bitcoin Milkshake’ at Bitcoin 2026 Conference. Bitcoin Magazine
- (4.1) eBay Investor Relations Company. (2026). eBay Inc. announces On the results of the fourth quarter and the full year for the year 2025. eBay Investor Relations
- (4.2) Value added resources. (2026). eBay Q4 2025 Earnings: GMV Growth and Depop Acquisition Surprise. Value added resources
