By Paul R. La Monica

The digital bank Chime Financial will test the market's renewed appetite for initial public offerings on Thursday.

The company's stock sale is set to price Wednesday night. It could be the next hot fintech IPO, following last week's offering by the stablecoin company Circle Internet Group. That stock has surged more than 270% from its debut price.

Chime works with two banks backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to offer customers online checking and savings accounts, as well as other financial products. It would have a market valuation of around $9.5 billion at the high point of its proposed $24 to $26 offering range.

On a fully diluted basis, which includes shares from options as well as stock that underwriters might buy, Chime would be valued at $11.1 billion. That is lower than the $25 billion valuation that Chime was worth based on its last round of private financing.

But it seems likely that Chime will price its IPO higher than the original range. The stock could also surge once it begins trading on the Nasdaq Thursday with the ticker symbol of CHYM.

Demand was strong for Circle and other new offerings, such as defense and space infrastructure firm Voyager Technologies, which priced its IPO well ahead of its original range. Voyager stock was up about 80% on Wednesday afternoon.

That is a positive sign for Chime's first day.

Chime, which is popular with young consumers, is growing rapidly thanks to offerings such as MyPay, which lets customers access up to $500 of their paycheck early. Another winner is SpotMe, an overdraft protection service. Many of Chime's products have low or no fees.

Chime generates much of its revenue from interchange fees paid by card networks like Visa when customers use Chime-branded debit or credit cards. Chime's sales rose more than 30% in 2024 and were up another 32% in the first quarter of 2025. The company posted a loss of $25 million last year, but that was less than what Chime lost in 2024. The company also was profitable in the first quarter of 2025.

Investors will be looking for signs that Chime can build on that first- quarter profit. A positive sign is that demand for digital banking is clearly not going away.

"These companies are solving a real problem. And they are now established, big businesses with a much better product," said Ryan Falvey, managing partner with Restive Ventures, an investor in the mobile banking company Dave. "The traditional financial services industry does not serve a lot of consumers well."

Wall Street seems to agree. Shares of Dave have soared 165% this year and more than 500% over the past 12 months.

Write to Paul R. La Monica at paul.lamonica@barrons.com

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June 11, 2025 14:36 ET (18:36 GMT)

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