There’s something interesting happening with Circle that’s worth following. Bernstein just signaled that the company’s shares still have plenty of room to rise — they’re talking about a potential 60% increase from current levels, with a target price of $190. Considering they’ve already gained more than 100% after surprising earnings, the analysis draws attention.

What’s driving the thesis? Analyst Gautam Chhugani observed something many are still not paying close attention to: the growth of stablecoins is starting to move on its own legs. While Bitcoin and the overall crypto market are still below their peaks, USD Coin has already nearly returned to its all-time high of $78 billion. Overall, the global stablecoin market capitalization is close to $270 billion.

Transaction volume is really accelerating. Activity with stablecoins grew more than 90% year over year, and what’s striking is that usage is moving out of the purely crypto universe. They are being integrated into traditional card networks — Visa already has over 130 debit cards linked to stablecoins in 50 countries, moving around $4.6 billion annually.

But there’s more. Circle is expanding its cross-border payments infrastructure, with about 55 institutions already connected and an annual transaction volume of around $5.7 billion. This shows it’s not just hype — they’re building real infrastructure.

For the future, Bernstein points to a theme that could be even bigger: Autonomous Finance. As autonomous software agents begin executing transactions on the internet, stablecoins could become the natural means of settlement for micropayments between machines — think API call payments or automated services. Circle is already preparing for this with the Arc blockchain, focused on high-performance payments.

Overall, the thesis is that Circle is positioned across multiple growth vectors simultaneously. It’s not just about higher cryptocurrencies — it’s about stablecoins becoming real infrastructure, both in traditional payments and in a future of autonomous finance.