Circle (CRCL) has one of the hottest stocks this year — and founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire is well aware of the strong price action.
“The Street is starting to get us,” Allaire told me on Tuesday night at the Economic Club of New York.
Allaire pointed to investors’ growing understanding that Circle is becoming key to the reinvention of the archaic global financial system — and that it’s not just a play on crypto adoption. He also pointed to the company’s strong fourth quarter results as evidence of its momentum.
Circle stock is up 115% to $132.31 in the past month, compared to a slight decline for the S&P 500 (^GSPC).
While still off from its all-time high of nearly $300 reached in late 2025, the stock is more than four times its original IPO price.
Circle has made a solid case in recent months that its stock price warrants a higher valuation.
Fourth quarter revenue and reserve income of $770 million increased 77% year over year. Adjusted operating profits increased by 412% from the previous year.
Bernstein analyst Gautam Chhugani said in a note on Wednesday that Circle’s stock is finally diverging from crypto prices. Chhugani added that he is seeing “strong evidence” of rising global adoption of stablecoins as global digital banking and increasing payments utility.
Read more: Stablecoins explained: What they do, how they work, and why risks remain
Chhugani reiterated an Outperform rating on Circle shares and a $190 price target. The target price assumes a 43% gain for Circle from current levels.
The company executed a successful IPO on June 5, 2025. Ever since, it has been at the center of optimism in the stablecoin market following the signing of the GENIUS Act by President Trump. The legislation creates guardrails and a framework for digital tokens backed by assets such as the US dollar.
Circle makes a lot of its money from interest income, specifically from the short-term Treasury bills backing the company’s stablecoin, USDC (USDC-USD).
Last fall, Circle unveiled Arc, an open Layer 1 blockchain designed to bring more economic activity on-chain. Arc has already signed BlackRock (BLK), Visa (V), and Amazon’s (AMZN) cloud business as collaborators.
“Consumer to business has seen a massive growth spike (131% year over year) driven by growth of stablecoin-linked cards (e.g Visa cards on stablecoin rails), now forming 24% of tagged payments value,” Bernstein’s Chhugani said.
In December, the company inked a multiyear deal with TurboTax owner Intuit (INTU) to accelerate next-generation financial services powered by its stablecoin technology.
