CRCL Stock Surges 16% as USDC Issuer Circle Beats Earnings
The CRCL stock surged by double digits in premarket trading following USDC issuer Circle’s release of its Q4 earnings. The firm beat estimates for its earnings per share (EPS) and revenue, providing a positive outlook for the leading stablecoin issuer. The stock has extended its surge following the market open and is up 30% on the day.
CRCL Stock Climbs as Circle Beats Earnings
TradingView data shows that the Circle stock is up over 16% in premarket trading, rallying above $71 from yesterday’s close of $61. The crypto stock’s rally follows the release of the USDC issuer’s Q4 earnings, which came in way above expectations.
Earnings per share were $0.43, above estimates of $0.16, beating them by 169%. Meanwhile, the stablecoin issuer’s Q4 revenue was $770 million, beating estimates of $745 million by 3%. Circle has now beaten earnings expectations for a second consecutive time since going public last year, providing a positive outlook for the CRCL stock.
According to the company’s earnings press release, USDC circulation of $75.3 billion at year-end grew 72% year over year (YoY). USDC on-chain transaction volume in Q4 last year, at $11.9 trillion, grew 247% YoY.
Furthermore, the total revenue and reserve income of $770 million in Q4 last year grew 77%. Net income from continuing operations of $133 million increased from $129 million, while adjusted EBITDA of $167 million grew 412%.
Notably, this growth occurred as the stablecoin payments volume doubled to $400 billion towards the end of last year despite the decline in Bitcoin’s price. Stripe, which is looking to acquire PayPal, also benefited from this stablecoin boom, with the payments giant now valued at $159 billion.
Meanwhile, the CRCL stock has extended its rally since the market opened today and is up 30% on the day. It has further cut its year-to-date (YTD) losses and is down only 2% since the start of the year.
“At An Inflection Point”
Commenting on the Q4 performance, Circle’s CEO, Jeremy Allaire, stated that they are currently at an inflection point as the internet is evolving from moving information to moving value. He remarked that blockchain, stablecoins, and AI aren’t separate trends and that they are converging into something much bigger, which is a “reimagined global economic system, built natively on the internet.”
The Circle CEO also stated that the world is moving toward a period in which hundreds of billions of AI agents will interact and perform economic functions over the internet. Allaire noted that these AI agents will need programmable digital dollars and open infrastructure, which Circle has been building. “The opportunity ahead has never been greater. And we’re just getting started,” he concluded.
It is worth noting that Mizuho analysts recently upgraded the CRCL stock to neutral from underperform, highlighting Polymarket as a growth catalyst for the stock since all bets on the prediction markets are settled in USDC.
Circle partnered with Polymarket in Q4 last year to advance the platform’s use of USDC as the core collateral and settlement asset for their markets. Polymarket continues to hit record trading volume as prediction markets gain greater adoption, which is a positive for USDC.
