Bernstein: Driven by the popularity of stablecoins and AI-driven finance, Circle's stock price may have an upside potential of 60%

PANews reported on March 11 that analysts at the brokerage firm Bernstein maintained an "outperform" rating on the stock of USDC issuer Circle, with a target price of $190, representing about a 60% upside from the current level of $120. The report noted that the adoption of stablecoins is increasingly decoupling from the cryptocurrency market cycle; despite the market being in a bear phase, the supply of USDC has rebounded to nearly a record $78 billion, and the total market capitalization of dollar-pegged stablecoins remains stable at around $270 billion. Adjusted stablecoin trading volume has increased by over 90% year-on-year, and trading turnover has improved, indicating that stablecoins are being used more frequently in scenarios outside of cryptocurrency trading. Payment adoption is the main driver, with stablecoins gradually being integrated into traditional card networks. Visa currently supports over 130 stablecoin-linked cards in more than 50 countries, with an annual settlement volume of approximately $4.6 billion. AI-driven "proxy finance" may become a new growth theme, as machine-to-machine micro-payments between autonomous software agents will require stablecoins as a natural payment rail