Circle’s stock rose above $110, more than doubling on the back of robust quarterly results in a high-rate environment. In February, USDC surpassed USDT in remittance volume, processing about $1.26 trillion and reinforcing its role as a payments network. Circle has been expanding through deeper Visa integration and growing use in emerging markets.
AI agents are using USDC for micro-payments thanks to Circle’s low fees and programmable tools. On-chain activity for USDC surged last year, with $11.9 trillion traded in the fourth quarter, up 247% year over year. In February, USDC handled around $1.26 trillion in transactions, accounting for roughly 70% of total activity.
USDT remains the dominant asset by market cap at about $184 billion, but USDC has shown significant gains in transaction velocity. Visa’s deeper integration has been a key catalyst, enabling on-chain settlements across the payments network. Circle is expanding into Latin America and Africa, where USDC is increasingly used as a cross-border payment and a hedge against local currency depreciation.
USDC aims to solve the micro-payment problem, positioning itself as a core element of agent-based finance. Over the past nine months, more than 400,000 AI agents executed payments, with 98.6% of volume settled in USDC. The average AI-agent payment is about $0.31, underscoring the micro-payment challenge that Circle’s programmable tools aim to address.
Circle’s programmable product suite enables developers to embed wallet management logic directly into AI code via the MCP server, and its Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) enables fast, low-cost liquidity moves across chains. Circle’s ecosystem and technical capabilities are lifting the company’s valuation multiples and unlocking new market opportunities. A broader trend shows that monthly trading volumes for Allium reached $1.8 trillion, underscoring the rising pace of USDC adoption across global markets.
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