Bernstein analysts raised their price target for Circle Internet Financial, citing accelerating stablecoin adoption across payments, businesses and potential AI-driven use cases.
The research note highlighted growing demand for USD Coin as stablecoins increasingly function as digital payment infrastructure rather than speculative crypto assets.
“We believe Circle is a long-term category winner,”
Said analysts at Bernstein.
Circle’s public listing in June 2025 became one of the most sought-after IPOs of the year after demand exceeded supply by more than 25 times, prompting the company to increase the deal size to 32 million shares and valuing the firm near $7 billion.
Shares of CRCL were trading around $112.89 in pre-market activity on March 10, rising roughly 0.8% after gaining 9.74% the previous day and about 41% year to date.
Bernstein noted that stablecoins appear to be decoupling from the broader crypto market cycle, with USDC supply rebounding to roughly $78 billion even as Bitcoin remains below its previous peak.
Meanwhile, Tether has continued expanding to about $183 billion in supply, reinforcing the view that stablecoins are becoming core “global digital dollar banking” infrastructure.
Circle is also expanding its cross-border payments ecosystem through the Circle Payments Network, which connects around 55 institutions across the EU, Singapore, India, the Philippines and the United States with annualised transaction volume near $5.7 billion as of February 2026.