Coinbase is Driving Adoption of Circle’s USDC for Payments, Financial Services: Bernstein

Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) is moving beyond its role as a USDC distributor, positioning itself as a key driver of stablecoin adoption across payments and financial services, Wall Street broker Bernstein said in a research report Wednesday.

The company recently launched Coinbase Payments, built in collaboration with Stripe and Shopify, and also introduced Coinbase Business, targeting startups and smaller companies. Both services use Circle’s USDC stablecoin.

In derivatives, Coinbase partnered with Nodal Clear to use USDC as collateral in U.S. futures markets.

The crypto exchange’s Base blockchain has hosted over $3.7 billion in USDC and has processed $6.8 trillion in USDC-related settlement volume year-to-date, Bernstein analysts, led by Gautam Chhugani, wrote.

Coinbase owns a direct equity stake in Circle (CRCL), the issuer of USDC, and also has a revenue sharing agreement for the stablecoin.

“Under the new revenue sharing agreement, Coinbase received 100% of the interest income from USDC held directly on its platform, and for the USDC held off-platform, Coinbase and Circle split the revenue 50:50,” said Chhugani.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies whose value is tied to another asset, such as the U.S. dollar or gold. They play a major role in cryptocurrency markets and are also used to transfer money internationally.

Stablecoin revenues have become a major contributor to Coinbase’s bottom line, Chhugani continued. Non-trading revenue grew from $181M in 2020 to $2.8 billion in 2024, now accounting for 42% of total revenue.

The shift underscores Coinbase’s incentive to scale USDC utility across payments and decentralized finance (DeFi), anchoring it as a long-term growth engine beyond trading, the report added.

Bernstein has an outperform rating on both Coinbase and Circle, with respective price targets of $510 and $230.