Circle’s USDC Sees Increased Payment and Financial Service Adoption Thanks to Coinbase, Bernstein Notes

Bernstein Highlights Coinbase’s Expanding Role in Driving USDC Adoption

Wall Street brokerage Bernstein reports that crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) has moved beyond simply distributing USDC and is now significantly advancing its adoption across financial services and payment solutions.

Recently, Coinbase unveiled Coinbase Payments, developed in collaboration with Stripe and Shopify, along with Coinbase Business, aimed at startups and small companies. Both initiatives incorporate Circle’s USDC stablecoin, underscoring Coinbase’s strategy to expand practical applications for stablecoins in everyday transactions.

Additionally, Coinbase has teamed up with Nodal Clear to enable USDC to serve as collateral in U.S. futures markets, further broadening its utility.

According to Gautam Chhugani and his team at Bernstein, Coinbase’s Base blockchain currently holds over $3.7 billion in USDC, and has facilitated approximately $6.8 trillion in USDC settlements so far in 2025.

Coinbase maintains a direct equity stake in Circle (CRCL), the stablecoin’s issuer, and benefits from shared revenue derived from USDC’s operations.

Chhugani explained that under the revised revenue-sharing arrangement, “Coinbase keeps all the interest income on USDC stored directly on its own platform, while any revenue from USDC held off-platform is split equally with Circle.”

Stablecoins, which maintain value by pegging to traditional assets like the U.S. dollar or gold, have become essential to the crypto ecosystem, frequently used for global transactions and trading activities.

Chhugani also pointed out that stablecoin-driven income has become an increasingly significant revenue stream for Coinbase. The company’s non-trading revenue has grown sharply from $181 million in 2020 to $2.8 billion in 2024, now accounting for 42% of its total revenue.

Bernstein believes Coinbase’s growing efforts to embed USDC into payments and decentralized finance (DeFi) reflect a larger vision to position the stablecoin as a critical driver of sustainable growth beyond crypto trading.

Bernstein continues to rate both Coinbase and Circle as outperform, with price targets of $510 for Coinbase and $230 for Circle.