[DigitalToday reporter Yoonseo Lee (이윤서)] Circle's share price has risen about 30 percent so far this year, posting the highest return among listed companies tied to cryptocurrencies.

On April 21, blockchain outlet The Block Crypto reported that Circle's market capitalisation was tallied at $25.7 billion based on the April 18 close. Coinbase fell 10 percent over the same period, showing a contrasting trend.

The main driver of Circle's strength is the expansion of USDC. Circle's revenue structure is effectively linked to USDC supply and short-term U.S. Treasury yields. USDC in circulation is up 3.7 percent so far this year and has increased more than 30 percent over the past 12 months. Rates have fallen, but a larger reserve-asset base offset the decline in earnings from lower rates.

Coinbase, by contrast, was heavily affected by a slowdown in trading volumes. A chain reaction from crypto liquidations in October 2025 damaged the scale of speculative trading, which led to a drop in transaction fee revenue. Base layer2 and staking income secured by Coinbase are also seen as failing to fully make up for the weakness.

Crypto-related stocks are increasingly showing a structure in which each name responds to different factors. That is because each stock reacts to different business models and variables. Circle is driven by stablecoin supply and interest rates, Strategy by the spot bitcoin price, and Coinbase by trading volume and token prices in its venture portfolio. This "diversification effect" could rewrite how institutional investors allocate crypto investments.

Investment approaches could also change. In the past, many traditional institutional investors seeking to broaden crypto exposure beyond spot bitcoin or ether often used Coinbase shares as a proxy investment vehicle. But it is now possible to approach them in separate buckets: wider stablecoin adoption through Circle, bitcoin treasury strategy through Strategy, and pure crypto beta through Coinbase.

A key point to watch is how much a U.S. stablecoin regulatory framework will actually change the competitive landscape. Some also point out that Circle's competitiveness lies in distribution networks and branding, and that Circle's valuation could come under pressure quickly if JPMorgan or Bank of America (BoA) were to issue a "tokenised dollar" with the same regulatory status.

Against this backdrop, crypto-related stocks have entered a phase that is difficult to explain by bitcoin prices alone. Factors that divide companies' earnings structures, such as expanding stablecoin supply, reliance on transaction fees, the interest-rate environment and sensitivity to token prices, are moving share prices more directly. As a result, in this year's market, exposure to a given business model is emerging as a key variable separating performance even among crypto-related stocks.