Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTAnand SinhaWed, August 26, 2026 at 7:15 PM GMT+2 4 min readVeteran investor Cathie Wood recently doubled down on Circle Internet Group (NYSE: CRCL) despite a sharp decline in its stock price over the last year.Circle is a crypto company popular for its USDC stablecoin. Pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar, USDC is the second-largest stablecoin after Tether's USDT. Such coins are also called "digital dollars" in crypto parlance.As per the onchain analytics platform DeFiLlama, USDC has a market cap of $73.88 billion, which accounts for 24.36% of the total stablecoin market.Total Stablecoins Market Cap, Source: DeFiLlamaRelated: Explained: What is a stablecoin?Analyst explains Circle's growthOn Aug. 19, analyst Alex Obchakevich compared the performance of Circle against that of Visa (NYSE: V) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA), the two payment giants.Over the last twelve months, Visa is up 5%, Mastercard is up 1%, and Circle is down 42% but has gained 30% in a month, he noted as of Aug. 19."Read quickly, it looks like noise. Read slowly, it's the market changing its mind about who actually earns money on stablecoins."When users pay a premium for distribution and avoid stablecoin issuers, Visa and Mastercard rule because they own the rails and the merchants and have roughly 8 billion cards. In contrast, Circle owns a stablecoin with an interest rate. When these rates fall, Circle bleeds, he explained what he calls an "old thesis."But Circle is no longer a "pure rates trade" as it has received regulatory approval to operate as a federally regulated trust bank and has turned profitable in the second quarter with transaction revenue doubling, he pointed out.The recent Circle rally "isn't a discovery, it's a correction of an overdone funeral," Obchakevich remarked. Though the stock is still down in a year and Wall Street analysts are deeply divided over its price target, the "business underneath has changed shape," he added.He also reminded the crypto community about both Visa and Mastercard joining the open standard consortium behind the Open USD (OUSD) stablecoin last month. Both these companies have also turned into stablecoin issuers now, he underlined.It isn't without any reason that these payment giants are behind the consortium. After all, last year saw stablecoin transfers worth $33 trillion, he added.Most Popular on TheStreet Roundtable:Analyst raises MicroStrategy price target by 35%157-year-old Wall Street giant has a new call on Coinbase and RobinhoodTop analyst spots a rare window for Bitcoin buyersWood expects Circle to be 'prime beneficiary' of tech disruptionThe ARK Invest CEO didn't respond immediately to Obchakevich's post but shared her outlook on Aug. 23. Though the Circle stock has appreciated 84% since its initial public offering (IPO), the one-year chart shared by Obchakevich illustrates the inefficiency of public equity markets in the short term, she claimed.Terms and Privacy PolicyEU DSA contactPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore Info