Cathie Wood says Visa and Mastercard analysts are sleeping on Circle’s disruption

Cathie Wood has never been one to whisper her convictions, and her latest target is the analyst community covering Visa and Mastercard. The ARK Invest founder argued on August 23 that Wall Street’s traditional payments analysts fundamentally do not understand the threat Circle Internet Group poses to the incumbents, even as CRCL shares have climbed 84% since the company’s June 2025 IPO. Meanwhile, Visa and Mastercard have barely budged this year, posting year-to-date gains of just 5% and 1% respectively. In Wood’s view, that gap tells a story about market inefficiency, not market wisdom. The numbers backing Wood’s thesis Circle’s recent financial performance gives Wood more than just vibes to work with. The company reported net income of $48 million in Q2 2026, a sharp reversal from a loss in the prior-year period. Transaction revenue doubled over the same stretch. The engine behind those results is USDC, Circle’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, which now commands 62% of market share in stablecoin transaction volumes. That dominance translated into roughly $849 billion in transaction volume as of July 2026. Zoom out further, and the scale becomes even harder to ignore. USDC processed a r...