Chime bets on stablecoins as neobank growth hits 10.4m members
Chime, the publicly listed US neobank that built its brand on fee-free banking for younger, lower-income Americans, is now pivoting toward stablecoin infrastructure, a move that signals how the boundary between consumer fintech and on-chain finance is dissolving faster than most incumbents anticipated.
According to a Bloomberg report, Chime issued requests for proposals to blockchain technology companies this spring, seeking providers capable of delivering "end-to-end" stablecoin wallet services embedded directly within its app. The timing is notable: the company has just reported its strongest quarterly performance since listing, with active members rising 20% year-on-year to 10.4 million, revenue up 27% to $670 million, and average revenue per user growing 6% to $250. Crucially, customers earning $75,000 or more annually became its fastest-growing user cohort, a demographic shift that reframes what kind of financial product Chime actually needs to build next.
From unbanked to upmarket
The stablecoin exploration sits at the intersection of two forces: a maturing user base with more complex financial needs, and a US regulatory environment that, for the first time, is offering clearer guidance on dollar-pegged digital assets. An embedded stablecoin wallet would allow Chime users to hold, send, and receive US dollar-pegged tokens inside the app without routing through crypto exchanges or off-ramps. Beyond peer-to-peer transfers and cross-border payments, the more commercially significant angle is yield: stablecoin startups across the US are actively building "Earn" products that allow users to generate returns on stablecoin deposits, effectively competing with savings accounts, and to access lending and borrowing at higher rates.
For Chime, whose legacy positioning was asset-light and accessibility-first, adding yield-bearing stablecoin products would represent a structural shift in its revenue architecture. Whether the upmarket customer cohort, now the company's growth engine, is ready to hold stablecoins inside a neobank app, rather than through a dedicated crypto platform, remains the central product question.
The wider convergence at stake
Chime is not moving in isolation. MoonPay this week launched an enterprise stablecoin infrastructure platform targeting banks, fintechs, and merchants with API access to fiat on-ramps, stablecoin conversion, and cross-border payouts. MoneyGram went live on Solana with cash-to-crypto rails for wallet developers. Lithic and Monavate announced a partnership giving fintech companies a single path to card programmes across fiat and on-chain rails simultaneously. In aggregate, these moves suggest that stablecoin infrastructure is transitioning from a speculative product category to a plumbing layer that mainstream consumer finance companies are now actively procuring.
The macro read-across extends beyond consumer fintech. Brazil's central bank announced plans to expand its Pix instant payment system internationally, having signed information-sharing agreements with 65 central banks, a sovereign-level signal that cross-border payment infrastructure is being rebuilt in real time, with or without stablecoins. Chime's RFP process, if it results in a live integration, would position it as one of the first major listed neobanks to embed on-chain dollar rails at consumer scale in the US market. The second-order effect is significant: if Chime's 10.4 million active members begin transacting in stablecoins within a regulated, familiar app environment, it normalises on-chain payments for a mainstream audience that crypto-native platforms have consistently failed to reach. For capital allocators watching the convergence of blockchain infrastructure and consumer financial services, the Chime signal is worth tracking closely.