Zaid Admani

The bright spot here is that stablecoin adoption has been picking up.

The amount of USDC in circulation surged 72% to $75.3 billion, and that's key to Circle's business model.

See, Circle makes money by holding US treasuries in reserve to back every token in circulation, and they pocket the interest on the US treasuries that are in their reserves.

So the more USDC in circulation, the more treasuries that Circle buys and the more money that they make.

I think the most interesting and encouraging part about Circle's earnings is that despite the overall crypto market being in a slump, you know, Bitcoin is down 50% from its October highs, that hasn't impacted the adoption of stable coins.

The beauty of Circle's business model is that their business isn't impacted on the price of crypto.

They make money as long as people continue to use USDC for payments, trading, and moving money around the blockchains.

And the company's also trying to become more than just a stable coin issuer.

They got conditional approval to become a national trust bank.

They're building out payment networks with 55 financial institutions, and they're projecting 150 to $170 million in non-interest revenue this year.

So they're actively diversifying their business.

Investors were loving this report.

Circle stock is getting a big boost this morning, up more than 20% at the time of this recording.

And you know, the stock really needed this because shares had fallen 75% from their all-time highs.

Let's talk about some stocks making moves today.

Shares of Kava are popping this morning after the Mediterranean fast casual chain delivered a surprise in its fourth quarter earnings.

The company reported same store sales growth of 0.5% in Q4, which was a surprise because Wall Street was expecting a 1% decline.

For the full year 2025, same store sales were up 4% and revenues topped $1 billion for the first time in the company's history.

Now, here's the thing.

A lot of that growth came from menu price increases and not more people walking through the door.