Circle Surges 30% as Earnings Beat and Bold USDC Growth Targets Ignite Rally

• Circle stock rose 30% to nearly $80 after beating fourth-quarter expectations with $770 million in revenue and setting a 40% growth target for USDC circulation.
• CEO Jeremy Allaire reported that USDC now accounts for 50% of stablecoin transaction volume tracked by Visa, with on-chain volume reaching $12 trillion in the quarter.
• The company recently acquired the Interop Labs team to integrate blockchain interoperability tools into Arc, Circle’s enterprise platform.

Stablecoin giant Circle (CRCL) jumped about 30% on Wednesday to near US$80 (AU$120) after the company beat fourth-quarter expectations and set aggressive USDC growth targets.

Circle posted US$770 million (AU$1.17 billion) in fourth-quarter revenue and reserve income, up 77% year over year. It also guided to about 40% compound annual growth in USDC circulation over the next several years.

William Blair kept an “outperform” rating and said Circle stands out as a public-market crypto infrastructure name. The firm pointed to a revenue-less-distribution-cost margin above 40% in the quarter, about 240 basis points ahead of its model, and said results benefited from more USDC being held directly on Circle’s platform (now close to 18% of average circulation).

Adjusted EBITDA was US$167 million (AU$255,510,000), about 12% above William Blair’s estimate.

Read more: USD1 Briefly Slips Below Peg as World Liberty Alleges Market Manipulation

After the rally, William Blair said Circle trades at roughly 17 times its 2027 EBITDA forecast, an 8% premium to fintech peers.

Growing Stablecoin Share

On CNBC, CEO Jeremy Allaire said USDC is taking a larger share of stablecoin payment activity. He said USDC accounts for about 50% of stablecoin transaction volume tracked by Visa, up from just over a third in the prior quarter. 

Moreover, on-chain USDC transaction volume rose more than 250% year over year to about US$12 trillion (AU$17 trillion) in the quarter.

Allaire recently dismissed claims that interest-bearing stablecoins could trigger bank runs, classifying them as “absurd” at the World Economic Forum in Davos. 

The company recently acquired the engineering team and technology from Interop Labs, a company associated with the early development of the Axelar network. The idea is to push Circle’s interoperability efforts by adding Interop’s tools and expertise into Circle’s enterprise blockchain, Arc. 

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