Circle, Coinbase seen as ‘best proxies’ for stablecoin upside as agentic payments emerge, Bernstein says

Bernstein analysts, led by Gautam Chhugani, identify Circle (CRCL) and Coinbase (COIN) as the best investment proxies for stablecoin upside, primarily due to their USDC partnership and the emergence of agentic machine payments.

Agentic payments involve transactions executed entirely by autonomous software, which stablecoins are uniquely suited for because they are programmable, instant, support micropayments, and are globally accessible, allowing for real-time settlement without traditional banking intermediaries. While infrastructure like Coinbase's x402 protocol and Circle's nano payments is being built, current traction for machine payments is limited, with Stripe's Machine Payments Protocol seeing only $5,000 in volume in its first week.

The core investment case for stablecoins, however, does not rely solely on agentic payments, as the sector is already seeing sustained, exponential growth in consumer and enterprise use cases like cross-border settlements. Circle's USDC supply and volumes are at all-time highs, leading in transaction volume share. Therefore, investors should continue to see Circle and Coinbase as direct exposure vehicles, with agentic payments offering additional optionality.

(Source：The Block)