Circle Internet Group<\/strong> isn’t a meme coin or a mining play. It’s the company behind USDC, the world’s second-largest stablecoin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n A stablecoin is a digital dollar. One USDC is always equal to one U.S. dollar, backed by cash and short-term Treasuries. <\/p>\n That makes Circle (CRCL) less of a crypto gamble and more of a plumbing company for digital money.<\/p>\n Circle went public in June 2025 at $31 a share. Within weeks, it reached a closing high of $263.45 on June 23, 2025. <\/p>\n That’s a stunning run for any new listing.<\/p>\n Since then, reality has set in. At the time of writing, CRCL stock trades around $91, valuing the company at a market cap of $22.5 billion.<\/p>\n The digital-asset market is down over 50% from its October 2025 peak, and Circle got swept up in the tide.<\/p>\n When you understand why the stock fell, the next part gets a lot more interesting.<\/p>\n Bloomberg/Getty Images
<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Here’s the twist. While most investors headed for the exits, Cathie Wood remained bullish.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her ARK funds first bought Circle in Q2 of 2025, scooping up 2.92 million shares, according to data from Stock Circle.\u00a0<\/p>\n Add it up, and ARK now holds 4.51 million Circle shares worth about $408 million. That’s 2.72% of the equity portfolio and her 10th-largest position. <\/p>\n ARK owns roughly 1.35% of all outstanding Circle stock.<\/p>\n Wood\u2019s estimated cost basis sits near $98.60 a share. With the stock around $90, that’s a paper loss of about 8.1%.<\/p>\n Wood’s playbook rarely tracks short-term sentiment. She buys disruptors when they’re cheap and unloved, betting the long-term story wins out. Circle fits that mold perfectly.<\/p>\n In its first-quarter report, Circle said: <\/p>\n CEO Jeremy Allaire also leaned hard into two themes: real-world adoption and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n On adoption, he pointed to Meta (META) using USDC for creator payouts, DoorDash (DASH) paying drivers in it, and Block’s (XYZ) Cash App rolling out USDC payments.\u00a0<\/p>\n Allaire said USDC now handles as much as 80% of all on-chain dollar stablecoin transactions.<\/p>\n On AI, Circle launched its Agent Stack, letting AI agents hold wallets and pay each other in tiny amounts. On the leading agent-payment protocol, called x402, Circle says USDC settles 99.8% of transactions.<\/p>\n “USDC already has an enormous lead in Agentic payments today, with 99.8% of all x402-Agentic payments being settled using USDC,” Allaire explained.<\/p>\n The company also raised $222 million in a presale of its new Arc token, led by a16z crypto, valuing the network at $3 billion.<\/p>\n The bull case rests on a future that hasn’t fully arrived.\u00a0<\/p>\n Related: Goldman Sachs cuts Coinbase target as outlook turns cautious<\/strong><\/p>\n USDC circulation was flat quarter over quarter and revenue still leans heavily on interest earned from reserves, which shrinks when the Federal Reserve cuts rates.\u00a0<\/p>\n And competition from Tether, Stripe, and the big banks is heating up.<\/p>\n Having watched the market chew up high-flying IPOs for years, I’ve learned that a great story and a great stock aren’t always the same thing, at least not on the same timeline.<\/p>\n According to data from Tikr.com, analysts tracking Circle stock forecast revenue to rise from $2.75 billion in 2025 to $7.51 billion in 2029.\u00a0<\/p>\n In this period, adjusted earnings per share are forecast to expand from $2.35 to $7.95.\u00a0<\/p>\n If CRCL stock is priced at 30x forward earnings, which is reasonable given its growth estimates, it could surge roughly 160% within the next 40 months.\u00a0<\/p>\n Out of the 19 analysts covering Circle stock, 12 recommend \u201cbuy\u201d, six recommend \u201chold,\u201d and one recommends \u201csell.\u201d<\/p>\n The average CRCL stock price target is $146, implying meaningful upside from current levels.<\/p>\n Wall Street clearly agrees with Wood. Whether the rest of the market catches up is the bet she’s still making.<\/p>\n Related: Goldman Sachs analyst delivers shock message on Circle after blowout quarter<\/strong><\/p>\n #Cathie #Wood039s #favorite #crypto #stock #record #highs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Few names lit up Wall Street in 2025 like one crypto sector’s breakout IPO. It tore out of the gate last June, minted overnight winners, and quickly became the stock… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[246],"tags":[1437,871,1951,3610,1419,91,8460],"class_list":["post-5985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-popular","tag-cathie","tag-crypto","tag-favorite","tag-highs","tag-record","tag-stock","tag-wood039s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.thestreet.com\/.image\/NDA6MDAwMDAwMDAzMDY3MzAy\/ark-investment-management-llc-chief-executive-officer-cathie-wood-interview.jpg?profile=rss\")
Cathie Wood keeps buying Circle stock during the slump<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Fund manager buys and sells<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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A strong performance in Q1<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Is CRCL stock undervalued right now?<\/strong><\/h2>\n