BUDAPEST, Hungary — Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal will clash in the UEFA Champions League final Saturday at Puskas Arena in what many are calling a classic matchup of the competition’s best attack against its stingiest defense.

PSG enters the decider boasting the highest-scoring campaign in the tournament this season, while Arsenal have conceded just 0.43 goals per game. The narrative of unstoppable force versus immovable object has dominated pre-match discussion, yet both managers have demonstrated enough tactical versatility to suggest the final may unfold in more nuanced fashion.

Luis Enrique’s PSG side has shown it can dominate through open, high-scoring affairs or controlled, low-possession games. In their semi-final tie against Bayern Munich, PSG won the first leg 5-4 in an end-to-end thriller before shifting to a more compact approach in the return, securing progression with disciplined defending and efficient counter-attacks despite limited ball possession in the second half.

The French club is chasing back-to-back titles, aiming to become the first side since Real Madrid in 1989-90 to repeat as European champions. Luis Enrique, a two-time winner of the competition, has described his current squad as more mature and experienced than last season’s champions.

Arsenal, under Mikel Arteta, have built their campaign on defensive solidity, intelligent set-piece execution and clinical transitions. The Gunners evolved this season from a possession-heavy style to a more compact, risk-averse unit that punishes opponents’ mistakes. Summer additions, including Eberechi Eze, added unpredictability and physicality to the midfield.

Arteta’s side spent heavily last summer — more than $300 million on eight new players — to address previous squad depth issues that contributed to near-misses in the Premier League and early European exits. That investment has provided options that could prove decisive in Budapest.

Key tactical questions surround both lineups. For Arsenal, Arteta must decide on midfield configuration, with speculation around fitting Martin Odegaard, Eze and young Myles Lewis-Skelly alongside Declan Rice. Choices also exist at left back between Piero Hincapié and Riccardo Calafiori, and up front between the powerful Viktor Gyökeres and experienced Kai Havertz.

PSG’s starting XI appears more settled, assuming fitness for Achraf Hakimi. The attacking trio of Ousmane Dembélé, Bradley Barcola and others gives Luis Enrique multiple ways to break down organized defenses.

The Puskas Arena, with its passionate neutral crowd, provides a fitting stage. Both clubs have strong traveling support expected in the Hungarian capital, creating an electric atmosphere for the showpiece event.

This final represents contrasting paths to success. PSG has embraced fluid, attacking football with high technical quality. Arsenal has prioritized structure, resilience and exploiting transitions. Set pieces could play a major role for the English side, an area they have refined significantly this season.

Injuries have been a recurring theme. Arsenal learned costly lessons last season when a depleted squad fell to PSG in Europe. This year, greater depth aims to mitigate such risks, though fitness of key players like Bukayo Saka will be monitored closely.

The broader context adds stakes. For PSG, victory would cement their status among Europe’s elite and validate their project under Qatari ownership. For Arsenal, ending a long wait for the Champions League trophy would validate Arteta’s rebuild and the significant investments made to close the gap on traditional powers.

Both coaches bring strong pedigrees. Arteta, a former Guardiola disciple, has transformed Arsenal into consistent contenders. Luis Enrique has instilled balance and winning mentality in PSG, addressing past criticisms of falling short in decisive moments.

Public interest has reached fever pitch. Betting markets reflect the closeness of the contest, with many analysts predicting a tight affair potentially decided by individual brilliance or a single set-piece moment.

Weather in Budapest is forecast to be mild, favoring technical football and high pressing. Both teams have managed workloads carefully in recent domestic fixtures to ensure freshness for the final.

Supporters on each side express belief. PSG fans point to their scoring records and European pedigree. Arsenal supporters highlight tactical discipline, squad depth and the belief that this is their year to claim the biggest prize in club football.

The final also spotlights trends in the modern Champions League. Financial regulations and squad-building strategies have reshaped competition, rewarding teams that blend youth, experience and tactical adaptability. Arsenal’s heavy summer spending exemplifies one approach, while PSG’s continuity under Luis Enrique shows the value of incremental improvement.

Historical parallels exist, yet this matchup feels unique. Few finals have featured such clear stylistic contrasts paired with two coaches known for in-game adjustments and surprise selections.

As kickoff nears, focus remains on preparation details. Small decisions in team selection and early tactical setups could dictate the flow. Luis Enrique has the advantage of greater certainty in his preferred XI, while Arteta’s depth creates unpredictability that may unsettle PSG.

Beyond the pitch, the final carries commercial and cultural weight. Both clubs boast global fanbases, ensuring widespread viewership. The winner will dominate headlines and enter the history books as champions of Europe.

For Arsenal, this represents the culmination of years of progress under Arteta. Reaching the final validates their project. Winning it would mark a defining moment in the club’s modern era.

PSG, already champions, seek to join an exclusive group of repeat winners. Success would silence remaining doubters about their place among the continent’s aristocracy.

The “best attack versus best defense” framing captures attention, but football rarely follows simple scripts. Expect tactical surprises, moments of individual quality and the kind of tension that defines European finals.

Both teams have earned their place through impressive campaigns. PSG’s attacking records and Arsenal’s defensive metrics set high expectations, yet the true decider will be execution on the night.

As the football world turns its eyes to Budapest, anticipation builds for what promises to be a memorable occasion. One side will leave as champions. The other will reflect on a strong season while plotting the next step forward.

Saturday’s winner will write history. Whether through PSG’s attacking flair finding gaps in Arsenal’s defense or the Gunners’ organization and counters prevailing, the 2026 Champions League final is poised to deliver high drama.

People may forget that Scott Bessent is probably the strongest wartime Treasury secretary going all the way back, at least to World War II. Through his Economic Fury campaign, he has slowly but surely turned off Iran’s monetary and economic spigots.

Not only the blockade of Iranian ports, which has stopped their oil sales and revenues, but also his putting an end to their shadow banking system through aggressive use and modernization of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, he has closed down their offshore bank accounts not only by freezing the accounts, but increasingly by actually seizing them, especially the crypto accounts, really to the tune of approaching $1 trillion worth.

People forget that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps owns half of Iran, and they live off the oil sales and they live off the businesses, and they’ve got the offshore accounts in the Gulf states and elsewhere. And Mr. Bessent has basically turned nearly all of that water off. And his campaign continues. 

Noteworthy also how all of these actions against our bitter Iranian enemy have strengthened the reserve currency value of the United States dollar, which is a long Trumpian policy fully supported by Mr. Bessent, shuttering bank branches, dismantling proxies, ending their shadow networks. It’s a crucial aspect of the successful American war to crush Iran. The most gruesome, gruesome Nazi type regime in some 100 years.

I talked to Mr. Bessent about all this at the Reagan National Economic Forum. While conducting financial war against Iran, Mr. Bessent has also managed to implement Trumpian economic policies, low tax rates, deregulation, “drill, baby, drill,” fair and reciprocal free trade. 

All of this has propelled our resilient economy and the temporary wartime bump-up in energy and gasoline prices has not really interfered much with that. Business is booming in America. In the year after signing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, profits are soaring, stock markets are breaking records, consumers are still spending, and rock-bottom unit labor costs belie any long-term inflationary concerns.

Indeed, as Mr. Trump begins to negotiate with Iran, which is a matter not yet settled as of this reporting, both oil and gasoline prices have come down, along with long-term interest rates. 

It’s a sign of confidence in this American war and the conduct of the war, and a sign of confidence in our long term future economy and in the administration of Donald J. Trump and Scott Bessent. As we celebrate America’s 250th birthday here at the Reagan Library, both Reagan-esque and Trumpian optimism prevails. And with good reason.

Operator

All right. Good morning, and welcome to Base Carbon’s Investor Town Hall. We want to thank you for joining us today. And it is my pleasure to introduce Michael Costa, the CEO of Base Carbon, who will begin today’s call with his opening remarks.

Michael Costa
CEO, Founder & Director

Thank you, Lindsay. Good morning, everybody. As always, grateful for people cutting out the time for us and for this update. It’s been a bit since we’ve talked to you live like this. I know everybody saw or most people probably saw the investor letter as of the end of the year, which we will make an annual tradition within Base.

Before I begin speaking about the company and the quarter, our lawyers want to continue to be employed, and they remind me that there are very, very small print forward-looking disclaimers that everybody should read and be aware that there are forward-looking statements here.

So now that I’ve kept the lawyers happy, let’s jump into it. Before I get into numbers and talking about carbon markets and carbon credits and our business, I want to — in my very unique personal way. But I want to give people an analogy to think about because I really think that this is what’s going on in our market. Imagine that somebody — and this somebody is the airlines, by the way.

But imagine that somebody is a homeowner and you got 2 problems. Number one, the roof is on fire. And number two, your hot water heater is on its last leg and needs to be replaced. What do you do first? Do you worry about the roof

NEW YORK — Savannah Guthrie, co-host of NBC’s “Today” show, has reportedly committed around $500,000 of her own money to hire a private team of former federal agents, security experts and detectives to search for her missing 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, according to a source close to the family.

The move comes more than three months after Nancy Guthrie vanished from her home in Tucson, Arizona, on Feb. 1, 2026. Authorities have treated the case as a suspected abduction, with ransom demands made early in the investigation, but no arrests have been announced and few significant updates have emerged from official channels.

The source told The Sun that Savannah Guthrie assembled the independent team after becoming frustrated with the pace of the official investigation. The group works daily on new leads, reviewing evidence, conducting interviews and coordinating with law enforcement where possible.

Private investigations can sometimes supplement official efforts in high-profile missing persons cases, particularly when families have resources to pursue avenues that stretched public agencies may overlook. However, experts caution that success is far from guaranteed and depends on the quality of the team, access to information and cooperation with police.

Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance has drawn national attention due to her daughter’s prominence. A combined reward exceeding $1.2 million remains active for information leading to her location or the arrest of those responsible. The family continues to urge anyone with tips to contact the FBI or Tucson authorities.

The private team reportedly includes former federal agents with experience in abduction and cold cases. Security experts and private detectives have been tasked with re-examining the scene, analyzing digital footprints and exploring potential motives tied to the family’s public profile.

While the investment signals Savannah Guthrie’s determination, law enforcement officials have emphasized the importance of coordination. Duplication of efforts or interference with active investigations can sometimes complicate matters. In this case, sources indicate the private team is working in parallel while sharing relevant findings with Tucson police and the FBI.

The case has seen several twists. In May, a YouTuber searching near the home discovered prehistoric human remains, which were quickly ruled unrelated. That incident highlighted both the public interest in the search and the challenging desert terrain around Tucson, where bodies can remain hidden for years due to harsh conditions.

Forensic experts have noted that the Sonoran Desert’s environment complicates recovery efforts. Ephemeral rivers, erosion and vast open spaces make traditional searches difficult. The private team is said to be using advanced technology, including drones, ground-penetrating radar and data analysis tools not always available to local departments.

Whether the additional resources will meaningfully increase the chances of finding Nancy Guthrie remains uncertain. High-profile cases with private involvement have had mixed outcomes. In some instances, fresh eyes and persistent pressure have led to breakthroughs. In others, the emotional and financial toll grows without resolution.

Savannah Guthrie has maintained a relatively low public profile on the matter beyond occasional appeals for information. Her decision to invest substantial personal funds underscores the family’s desperation after months without answers. The reported $500,000 commitment covers salaries, equipment, travel and operational expenses for the specialized team.

The broader investigation continues. Authorities have not ruled out any possibilities, including targeted abduction linked to Savannah Guthrie’s visibility or random criminal activity. The ransom deadline passed without resolution in February, but tips continue to come in through the 88-Crime hotline and FBI channels.

Nancy Guthrie, a mother of three, was described by family as active and independent. Her sudden disappearance from her Catalina Foothills home in the early morning hours shocked the community. Flowers and messages of support continue to appear outside the residence.

The involvement of private investigators adds a new layer to an already complex case. Experts in missing persons investigations say that while private teams can accelerate certain leads, they cannot replace official resources such as forensic databases, inter-agency coordination and legal authority to compel information.

Success often hinges on a specific tip or piece of overlooked evidence. The $1.2 million reward remains one of the strongest incentives for the public to come forward. Combined with the private team’s daily efforts, the family hopes to create multiple pathways to resolution.

As the search enters its fifth month, the emotional strain on the Guthrie family is evident. Savannah Guthrie has balanced her high-visibility role on “Today” with personal advocacy, occasionally referencing the ongoing pain in interviews while focusing primarily on her professional responsibilities.

The case has also drawn attention to challenges faced by families of missing persons. Limited resources for long-term investigations often leave loved ones turning to private options when official progress stalls. Organizations supporting such families recommend clear communication protocols between private teams and law enforcement to maximize effectiveness.

Tucson police and the FBI have not publicly commented on the private investigation. However, in similar high-profile cases, agencies typically welcome supplemental efforts as long as they do not compromise evidence or witness integrity.

The desert location continues to pose unique difficulties. Experts have previously noted that dozens of remains surface annually in the region due to natural exposure or development, as seen with the unrelated prehistoric discovery near the search area.

For the Guthrie family, the private investment represents hope amid uncertainty. Whether it leads to a breakthrough depends on many variables, including luck, persistence and the possibility that key information still exists within reach.

As summer temperatures rise in Arizona, physical searches become more challenging, shifting focus toward digital analysis, financial tracking and witness re-interviews — areas where experienced private investigators can add value.

The coming weeks may bring further developments as the private team digs deeper into leads. Meanwhile, the official investigation remains active, with the substantial reward serving as a constant call for public assistance.

Nancy Guthrie’s story continues to resonate nationally, reminding many of the thousands of unresolved missing persons cases across the country. For the Guthrie family, the financial commitment by Savannah reflects both love and determination to bring her mother home.

Authorities continue to ask anyone with information to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or Tucson’s 88-Crime hotline at 520-882-7463. Tips can remain anonymous.

NEW YORK — Super Micro Computer Inc. shares jumped more than 13% in morning trading Friday, reaching $46.89 as investors responded positively to the company’s recent earnings momentum and continued strength in artificial intelligence server demand.

The sharp gain reflects renewed confidence in Super Micro’s position as a key supplier of high-performance servers for AI data centers. Despite earlier challenges including accounting scrutiny and legal issues, the company has shown signs of operational stabilization and margin improvement in recent quarters.

Super Micro reported third-quarter fiscal 2026 net sales of $10.2 billion, significantly higher than the same period last year though below some analyst expectations. The company posted adjusted earnings that beat forecasts, with gross margins recovering to 9.9%, up from 6.3% in the previous quarter. Non-GAAP gross margin reached 10.1%.

Management highlighted robust demand for its AI-optimized systems. The company maintained a strong full-year fiscal 2026 revenue outlook in the range of $38.9 billion to $40.4 billion, underscoring confidence in sustained growth from liquid-cooled and high-density GPU servers.

Super Micro has benefited from the broader AI infrastructure buildout. As hyperscalers and enterprises expand data center capacity for training and inference workloads, demand for customizable, high-efficiency servers has accelerated. The company’s ability to deliver rapid time-to-market solutions has helped it capture market share alongside larger competitors.

Analysts note that margin recovery is a critical development. Earlier pressure on profitability from supply chain costs and competitive pricing has eased as the company shifts toward higher-value AI configurations. This improvement supports longer-term profitability goals even as revenue scales.

The stock’s performance this year has been volatile. Earlier setbacks related to delayed filings, a Nasdaq delisting threat and legal matters involving export compliance weighed on sentiment. However, recent operational progress and upbeat commentary on AI order pipelines have helped stabilize investor views.

Super Micro’s focus on liquid-cooled systems and modular infrastructure aligns with industry trends toward more power-efficient data centers. These technologies address growing concerns over energy consumption in AI facilities while delivering the performance required for advanced workloads.

Long-term prospects for Super Micro remain tied to the AI secular growth story. If the company can maintain execution and expand its customer base beyond a few large hyperscalers, analysts see potential for substantial revenue growth in coming years. Some forecasts project the addressable market for AI servers continuing to expand rapidly through the end of the decade.

However, risks persist. The company faces ongoing legal and regulatory matters, including past allegations related to export controls. Customer concentration remains high, with a significant portion of revenue coming from a limited number of major clients. Any slowdown in AI capital spending could pressure near-term results.

Valuation metrics have improved with the recent rally but still reflect growth expectations. At current levels, the stock trades at multiples that assume continued strong demand and margin stability. Investors evaluating Super Micro as a long-term holding should weigh its exposure to cyclical technology spending against its competitive positioning in the AI ecosystem.

The company continues to invest in research and development to stay ahead in server design and cooling technologies. Recent product launches in Arm-based and Open Compute Project systems aim to broaden its appeal across different computing architectures.

For investors considering Super Micro as a long-term buy, the thesis centers on sustained AI infrastructure investment. The company’s agility in customizing solutions has been a differentiator, allowing it to win deployments where speed and flexibility matter. If management can deliver on guidance while resolving remaining compliance issues, the stock could reward patient investors.

Market reaction Friday showed broad participation, with elevated volume supporting the move. The gain follows a period of consolidation after earlier post-earnings volatility. Broader technology sector sentiment remains constructive amid ongoing enthusiasm for AI-related plays.

Super Micro’s leadership, including founder and CEO Charles Liang, has emphasized transformation into a total IT solutions provider. This includes not just servers but integrated data center building blocks designed to reduce deployment complexity for customers.

Challenges from competition remain. Larger players like Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise also compete aggressively in the AI server space. Super Micro’s success depends on maintaining technological edges and operational efficiency.

Analysts offer a range of views on the stock’s long-term potential. Some see significant upside if AI spending trajectories hold, while others recommend caution due to execution risks and valuation. Consensus leans toward measured optimism contingent on consistent results.

The coming quarters will be important test points. Investors will watch for progress on margin targets, order backlog conversion and updates on any legal resolutions. Positive developments in these areas could support further re-rating of the shares.

Super Micro has grown rapidly from its origins as a server specialist to a prominent player in the AI infrastructure boom. Its ability to scale alongside exploding demand for compute power has created substantial shareholder value over recent years, though with notable volatility.

For those assessing it as a long-term investment, key considerations include the durability of AI demand, the company’s ability to diversify its customer base and sustained improvements in financial controls and profitability. While risks are material, the growth opportunity in AI infrastructure remains compelling for many growth-oriented investors.

As trading continues, focus will remain on whether today’s momentum can hold and what catalysts lie ahead. Super Micro’s trajectory will likely stay closely linked to broader trends in artificial intelligence adoption and data center expansion.

This article was written by

Follow

Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

Pay a 20-person distributed team the traditional way — separate bank wires, per-recipient FX conversion, intermediary fees, settlement delays — and you spend several hours of admin per cycle and lose 3–6% of the total to fees and spread.

Pay the same team in stablecoins via a single batched transaction and you spend a few minutes, pay under a percent in network fees, and the money lands in every recipient’s wallet within minutes. The economics are now lopsided enough that distributed-team operators are switching by the thousand, and the category has matured from curiosity into operational baseline.

This piece unpacks what’s happening under the hood, where the real wins and the genuine limits sit, and how to think about putting mass crypto payments into production for your own team. The Crypto Office mass crypto payments tool fits the pattern described here — a single sender pushing payouts to a list of recipient addresses in one operation, with a per-recipient confirmation trail for accounting.

What a Mass Payment Actually Is

At the protocol layer, a mass payment is a single transaction (or a small batch of them) that delivers funds to many recipient addresses in one operation. On chains that support batching natively, the entire payroll becomes one on-chain entry — efficient, atomic, and cheap. On chains that don’t, the mass-payment tool batches client-side and submits a sequence of parallel transactions, producing the same effective result with slightly higher fees.

The user-side flow is just a list: each row is a recipient wallet plus an amount. The tool handles everything else — fee calculation, transaction construction, broadcast, confirmation tracking, and a per-recipient payout report you can hand to accounting at month-end.

Where the Real Savings Show Up

The traditional column assumes international payroll; for domestic single-currency payments the gap narrows. The wider the geographic and currency spread of your team, the bigger the crypto-mass-payment advantage. For a typical 20-person team across 8 countries, the all-in monthly savings land in the low thousands of dollars plus several hours of finance time.

Step-by-Step: A Standard Payroll Run

A typical month-end run for a distributed team using a stablecoin mass-payment tool looks like this:

1. Finance exports the payroll spreadsheet — recipient name, wallet address, amount in USD or local currency.
2. The tool converts amounts to the chosen stablecoin (USDC or USDT, on whichever chain the team standardized).
3. Treasury wallet is pre-funded with sufficient stablecoin; the tool calculates network fees and shows the total cost before submission.
4. Finance reviews the batch one last time (address format checks, no zero-amount rows, total matches the spreadsheet) and confirms.
5. The tool broadcasts the batch. Each recipient sees the deposit in their wallet within minutes; the tool returns a payout report with per-recipient transaction hashes.

The whole sequence is under fifteen minutes for a team of fifty, most of which is the human review step you should never skip.

A Worked Example: A London Studio Paying Distributed Contractors

Picture a small design studio in London paying twelve freelance contributors spread across Lisbon, Manila, Lagos, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo. Old workflow: SEPA to the two EU folks, SWIFT wires to everyone else (£15–£30 fee each), each contractor losing another 1–2% on their bank’s FX, payments arriving anywhere from one to four business days after sending. Total monthly cost: roughly £280 in fees plus three hours of finance admin per cycle.

New workflow: studio holds USDC on Base, exports the payroll spreadsheet, runs the batch through a mass-payment tool. Contractors receive USDC within minutes and handle their own off-ramp to local currency via whichever exchange gives them the best rate (often dramatically better than what a London bank could quote). Total monthly cost to the studio: under £5 in network fees plus fifteen minutes of finance time. The savings recover the studio’s annual treasury setup cost in two months and pay for themselves indefinitely thereafter.

What to Plan For Before Switching

Most operational risk in this pattern isn’t the payment mechanics; it’s the surrounding plumbing.

Tax and reporting. Crypto payroll doesn’t change the underlying obligation but does change the form the records take. Make sure your accounting system can ingest stablecoin amounts at the conversion rate prevailing on the payout date, and that contractors understand what they’re receiving and how to report it.

Wallet hygiene. Each recipient needs a wallet they actually control, not an exchange deposit address that may close or be flagged. A short onboarding doc and a five-minute call per new contractor saves a lot of confusion downstream.

Compliance posture. Sending stablecoin payments to dozens of wallets monthly produces a transaction pattern that some compliance tools flag as “structured payouts” — perfectly legitimate but worth pre-explaining if you have a banking partner watching the inflow side. Treasury operations connected to flows like Crypto Office typically come with documentation that helps with that conversation.

Recipient consent. Some contractors prefer fiat and that’s fine. The right model is opt-in, not mandate. Run the crypto track in parallel with bank rails for those who don’t want it, and convert opt-ins over time as people see the speed and reliability.

Where the Pattern Doesn’t Make Sense

It’s worth being honest about the limits. For payrolls that are mostly domestic and within a single currency, the savings versus a good payroll provider are marginal — the friction of stablecoin onboarding per recipient probably costs more than the fee savings. For payrolls where most recipients are full-employment relationships with regulated tax withholding, the legal overhead of paying in crypto often outweighs the operational wins. The category really shines for distributed contractor payments across multiple currencies, where the cost stack on traditional rails is at its worst.

If you remember one thing

Mass crypto payments in 2026 are a genuine operational improvement for distributed-team payroll, not a hype category — the cost stack collapses, the admin time collapses, and the settlement window collapses, all at once. Pilot the flow with three or four contractors who are already crypto-comfortable, measure the time and cost per cycle against your current rails, and decide whether to expand. The setup work is real but front-loaded; the savings compound every month thereafter. If your contractor base is international and your finance team complains about wire fees at month-end, this category is worth half a day of evaluation this week.

FAQ

What if a recipient gives me the wrong wallet address?

A wallet address typo means the funds go to whatever address you actually sent to. Most mass-payment tools validate address format before submission (Bitcoin addresses look different from Ethereum, which look different from Solana) but can’t check whether the typo produced a valid address that belongs to someone else. The discipline is a small test transaction the first time you pay a new recipient — send $5, confirm receipt, then add them to the regular payroll. The five-dollar safety cost pays for itself the first time it catches an error.

How do we handle contractors who want local currency?

The clean pattern is to standardize on stablecoin payouts and let each contractor handle the off-ramp on their side. Off-ramp rates in most major currencies are better than what a Western bank’s wire-FX would charge anyway, and pushing the conversion to the recipient avoids the operational complexity of multi-currency treasury. For contractors who can’t handle the off-ramp themselves, a fiat fallback rail run in parallel is the practical answer; don’t force everyone onto crypto.

What happens if the stablecoin de-pegs during a payroll cycle?

Major stablecoins have had brief de-peg events but recovered within hours each time. The exposure window for a mass-payment sender is bounded by the time between batch send and recipient off-ramp — if you batch the payout and recipients off-ramp within the same day, your effective exposure is hours, not days. For higher-stakes operations the right hedge is to diversify between two top-tier stablecoins so a single-issuer event doesn’t hit the whole payroll. The risk is real but manageable with a small amount of treasury discipline.

David Vernon
Bernstein Institutional Services LLC, Research Division

All right. Awesome. So thank you, guys, everyone, for joining us. My name is David Vernon. I cover the airlines and transports for Bernstein. We are pleased to have Southwest Airlines here, Bob Jordan, the CEO; Ryan Martinez in Finance; Danielle Collins in IR with us as well.

So thank you all for coming out to support the conference. Bob, I’m going to — or actually, before we get started, if you do have questions, you want to put through the pigeon hole. I’ve got the other side of that technology here. So feel free to put them in there, and I’ll see if I can work them into the conversation. With that, I’m going to let Bob kick us off with some prepared remarks, and we’ll get into the Q&A. Bob, thank you for joining us.

Robert Jordan
President, CEO & Vice Chairman of the Board

Thank you so much. And I was told I have to say, look at your screen, there’s a cautionary statement that has to be there. So please read all those words in detail. And — but anyway, thanks for doing this. Really appreciate it, and thanks for the time. I’ll just give you a quick sort of lay of the land of how is the business performing.

Obviously, we put a lot of changes in the last 18 months. The biggest transformation in the history of Southwest Airlines, it really was a fundamental change to our business. We didn’t change our core. So the best domestic network, the