I noticed an interesting analytical report from Bernstein on Circle's stocks — it seems the stablecoin market is starting to live its own life, separate from the overall crypto cycles.

The fact is, brokers have assigned a "market outperform" rating with a target price of $190, which implies a 60% potential increase from the current $120. It sounds ambitious, but the numbers speak for themselves.

Look at what's happening: USDC has recovered to $78 billion — nearly an all-time high. Meanwhile, Bitcoin and the entire crypto market are still below their peaks. The total capitalization of dollar stablecoins remains at around $270 billion. This means stablecoins are no longer just a speculative tool — they are becoming an independent ecosystem.

Trading volumes are growing even faster: the adjusted volume has increased by more than 90% year-over-year. The velocity of turnover is increasing. This indicates an expansion beyond crypto trading — now it’s about payments.

On the payment side, the situation is developing quite interestingly. Visa already supports over 130 cards linked to stablecoins, covering 50 countries with an annual transaction volume of about $4.6 billion. Circle Payments Network has connected approximately 55 organizations with an annual volume of around $5.7 billion. The infrastructure for international settlements is in place.

But what’s truly intriguing is what Bernstein calls "agent finance." When autonomous software agents start making deals online, stablecoins could become a natural settlement network for microtransactions between machines. Payments for API calls, automated services — all of this requires a fast and reliable settlement layer. For this, Circle is developing a high-performance blockchain network called Arc.

Overall, if this development continues, stablecoins could become a much more significant asset than many currently assume. The situation with Circle crypto is becoming increasingly interesting.