Sezzle Stock Crashes: What Sparked the 2025 Bloodbath?

Another day, another fintech faceplant—Sezzle just joined the club.

Shares nosedived after the buy-now-pay-later darling got sucker-punched by macroeconomic headwinds. Turns out, even Silicon Valley’s favorite payment hacks can’t defy gravity forever.

Wall Street’s love affair with BNPL cools off

Rising interest rates and consumer debt fatigue finally caught up with the sector. Sezzle’s growth-at-all-costs model? Suddenly looking like a liability rather than a moonshot.

The irony? Traditional credit card companies—the dinosaurs Sezzle vowed to disrupt—are quietly eating their lunch with lower APRs. Sometimes legacy finance wins by just… not being reckless.

One analyst’s ‘correction’ is another’s reckoning. Either way, today’s selloff proves no fintech unicorn is too pretty for a reality check.

Image source: Getty Images.

Sezzle cools off

Sezzle, a buy now, pay later (BNPL) company that's taken the market by storm over the last two years, continued to deliver impressive growth. Revenue grew 76.4% to $98.7 million, which beat analyst estimates at $94.9 million.

Sezzle's monthly on-demand and subscribers metric reached 748,000, up from 658,000 in the previous quarter, showing solid growth in its high-frequency user base. Gross merchandise volume was also strong, up 74.2% to $927 million.

Margins continued to expand as operating income jumped 116.1% to $36.1 million, and adjusted earnings per share was up 97% to $0.69.

CEO Charlie Youakim said, "The product features and marketing initiative we've rolled out are driving stronger engagement and broader adoption."

What's next for Sezzle

While its results were strong, given its blistering growth coming into the report, investors may have expected a wider beat.

Additionally, Sezzle's guidance calls for its growth to continue to decelerate as the company sees revenue growth of 60%-65% and adjusted earnings per share of $3.25, which was just slightly below the consensus at $3.26.

After soaring growth through the first half of the year, that reflects a significant moderation in the second half of the year as well.

Still, the stock now trades at a forward P/E of under 30, which looks like a great price for the fast-growing, disruptive BNPL player.