Bitwise: Circle Severely Undervalued, Could Become Both a Stablecoin and Payment Giant Simultaneously

August 11th, Bitwise Research Director Ryan Rasmussen stated that as the stablecoin market expands to a scale of tens of trillions of dollars, investors are underestimating Circle's growth opportunities. He expects the stablecoin market to grow from the current approximately $300 billion to $30 trillion to $50 trillion, and believes that with the gradual formation of the U.S. stablecoin regulatory framework, Circle has taken the lead with its existing market share.

Rasmussen believes that Circle's opportunity is not only to gain more reserve income as the stablecoin scale grows, but the company is also building payment infrastructure for the stablecoin financial system, a part of the business that is currently "seriously underestimated" by the market. He said: "Looking back in five years, Circle will not only become a stablecoin giant but also a payment giant." and compared its potential development path to global payment companies like Visa and Mastercard.

Regarding the competition brought by traditional institutions such as banks and consumer companies launching their own stablecoins, Rasmussen does not believe this will pose a significant threat to Circle. He believes that the overall market growth rate may be sufficient for Circle to continue to expand even as competitors increase, with the key being whether the company can continue to execute during the development of the regulated stablecoin market.

Furthermore, Rasmussen stated that Circle's launch of the Arc blockchain will test whether the company can further expand from stablecoin issuance to payment infrastructure. The focus for the next year will be on whether Arc will be adopted and integrated into the traditional financial system, and how Circle's business model will evolve with the popularization of stablecoins and the growth of new infrastructure.