The news: Early Warning Services’ Zelle disclosed double-digit year-over-year (YoY) growth across critical segments during the first half of 2025, per a press release.
Diving into the numbers: Zelle notched its biggest month yet in August, with more than $108 billion sent.
The payment platform’s growth metrics for its “superusers” (top 20% most active users) reflect where average US adults are still allocating their money, as lower- and middle-class consumers pull back on other categories:
- Person-to-small-business volume spiked 30%.
- Payouts from small businesses to individuals rose by 22%.
- The number of rent payments grew by 13%.
- Weekend payments increased 18%.
- Childcare payments rose over 7%.
Noticeably absent: P2P payments. Zelle billed itself as a peer-to-peer payment provider, but its superusers’ major use cases trend toward large payments and business transactions.
It could be that Zelle is plateauing or losing P2P volume among friends splitting costs to competing P2P products like Venmo or Cash App. Both platforms aggressively market to young users to adopt their services and offer more convenient tools like Venmo Groups and Cash App pools.