Citi believes Circle Internet Group is best positioned if stablecoins become the backbone of digital payments. The bank maintained its buy rating on the blockchain and fintech company, naming it a top stock. Analyst Peter Christiansen reiterated his price target of $243, implying a 192% upside. Circle has been flat since going public last June, but has increased 5% this year. CRCL 1Y Mountain CRCL 1Y Chart On Wednesday, Circle reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results, sending its stock up more than 35%. Circle, which issues two types of stablecoins including USDC, also reaffirmed that USDC will increase in circulation at a compound annual rate of approximately 40% over a multi-year cycle. Beyond the beat, Christiansen pointed to a constructive and increasingly reliable long-term narrative for USDC’s role in digital payments and emerging artificial intelligence-driven commerce. “While Q4 ’25 results have been progressively impressive, the Circle provided a very constructive and credible tone on USDC’s positioning towards potentially becoming the default rail for agent AI commerce where autonomous agents require stable value, instant payments and global interoperability,” he said. “The theme of agent commerce is not new to stablecoins, but we believe that (i) the rapid deployment of AI agents moving from experimentation to production, (ii) the increasing maturity of CPN and Arc to support programmable and compliant payments at scale, and (iii) There is now even more urgency given regulatory improvements that reduce adoption friction.” The analyst added that this dynamic could expand Circle’s economic opportunities as stablecoins move beyond payments to AI-powered transactions. “In addition to Circle’s significant opportunity in cross-border payments, this AI convergence commentary suggests the potential for reserve economics to be extended to embedded trading infrastructure, where we believe Circle’s competitive pole position is well ahead.” “CRCL is the overall top candidate.” However, Christiansen predicted that USDC circulation growth will slow in the first half of 2026 due to volatility in the overall crypto market, which is causing some investors to convert USDC to fiat. But he expects growth to accelerate in the second half of 2026.
