Bernstein: Circle's Stock Price Could Surge Another 60%, Stablecoins and AI Agent Finance to Drive Growth

On March 11, brokerage firm Bernstein said stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) has room for stock price growth, earning it an “Outperform” rating and a $190 price target—representing roughly 60% upside from its current ~$120 level. The stock had already jumped over 100% in the weeks after better-than-expected earnings. Analyst Gautam Chhugani noted stablecoin growth is slowly decoupling from the crypto market cycle. While Bitcoin and the broader crypto market remain below all-time highs, USD Coin’s supply has rebounded to nearly its ~$78 billion all-time high, and total stablecoin market cap sits at ~$270 billion. The report also noted stablecoin trading activity is surging: adjusted trading volume is up over 90% year-over-year, and faster transaction speeds signal their use cases are shifting from crypto trading to payments. On the payments front, stablecoins are integrating into traditional card networks. Visa already supports over 130 stablecoin-linked bank cards across 50 countries, with an annualized settlement volume of ~$4.6 billion. Plus, Circle is expanding its cross-border settlement infrastructure—the Circle Payments Network—with ~55 institutions currently onboarded and ~$5.7 billion in annualized transaction volume. Bernstein also flagged “Agentic Finance” as a future growth theme. As autonomous software agents transact online, stablecoins could serve as a natural settlement rail for machine-to-machine microtransactions—like API calls or automated service payments. Circle is building Arc, a high-throughput payment blockchain, to support this shift.