Circle Stock Surges as Bernstein Sees Upside From Stablecoins

Circle Internet Financial has been among Wall Street’s best-performing stocks so far in 2026. Bernstein reiterated an Outperform rating on CRCL and set a $190 price target. The shares closed Tuesday at $118.17, up 5.7%, giving the company a market capitalization of roughly $30.3 billion; since bottoming near $50 a share in early February the price has more than doubled and is up about 49% year to date, outpacing a flat S&P 500 and a roughly 1% decline in the Nasdaq 100.

Based on Bernstein’s target, the stock still has roughly 60% upside. Bernstein’s bullish view centers on rapid stablecoin adoption and clearer rules for using digital dollars in the United States. The GENIUS Act, passed in 2025, created a federal framework for stablecoins and set standards for reserve backing, disclosures and oversight.

USDC is the world’s second-largest stablecoin, with roughly $78 billion in circulation—about one-quarter of the global stablecoin market, per DeFiLlama data—placing Circle well to benefit from broader adoption.

United States

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