The hottest crypto stock on the planet right now is Circle Internet Group (NYSE: CRCL), which debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on June 5. In its first day of trading, Circle was up nearly 170%. At one point, Circle was up more than 200%, and trading was halted several times, as the market struggled to keep up with demand.

There are only a handful of pure play crypto stocks right now for investors, and Circle might end up being the best of them. So what is Circle, and why should it be in your portfolio?

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Stablecoins

Circle is a direct play on the surging stablecoin industry, which is now valued at over $250 billion. Circle's stablecoin is USDC (CRYPTO: USDC), which currently has a $60 billion valuation, making it the 7th largest cryptocurrency in the world by market cap.

Thus, by getting exposure to Circle, you are getting exposure to a company that controls 25% of the rapidly growing stablecoin industry via USDC.

Image source: Getty Images.

The easiest way to think about stablecoins is that they are "digital dollars." They are typically pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar, and that makes them very useful as an on-ramp to the world of blockchain finance. Institutional investors are increasingly using them to move money into crypto.

Thus, the surge in the stablecoin industry over the past five years can be seen as part of a broader trend: the shift from "physical dollars" to "digital dollars" and the growing mainstream appeal of crypto.

Stablecoins have even attracted the attention of the U.S. Treasury Department, which is now viewing them as a potential policy tool to support the U.S. dollar. In one scenario that has been discussed, stablecoins might also be used to reduce the amount of interest the government pays on its debt.

Circle's growth potential

As you might have guessed by now, Circle's future growth potential is off the charts. In Ark Invest's "Big Ideas 2025" report, CEO Cathie Wood dedicated an entire section to stablecoins and their potential to reshape the financial world. The numbers are just jaw-dropping.

In 2024, for example, annualized transaction value of stablecoins hit $15.6 trillion, far surpassing the transaction values of both Visa (NYSE: V) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA). While both credit card issuers still have significantly more transaction volume, they are now behind when it comes to transaction value.

The profit-making potential of stablecoin issuers such as Circle is also noteworthy. These stablecoin issuers make money on the dollar reserves used to support their stablecoins. Typically, they take their dollars, and then invest them in low-risk assets such as U.S. Treasury bills. This creates an incredibly capital-efficient business model that churns out profits.

Over time, Ark Invest expects stablecoins to become a bigger and bigger part of the global financial system. That will create more and more opportunities for Circle.

But what about competitors?

Just keep in mind: Circle is not the only company involved in stablecoins. Its primary competitor is Tether (CRYPTO: USDT), which is considerably larger. In fact, Tether has a market cap of $154 billion, which represents roughly 60% of the total value of the stablecoin market.

There are plenty more competitors on the way, given just how lucrative the business is. For example, World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture affiliated with the Trump family, recently launched a stablecoin of its own earlier this year. It now has a market cap of $2 billion, meaning it now ranks among the top 40 cryptocurrencies in the world.

Moreover, stablecoins are a truly global industry. As Ark Invest points out in its report, new euro-pegged and yen-pegged stablecoins are now starting to pop up. While dollar-pegged stablecoins currently represent 98% of total stablecoin supply, it's easy to see how that percentage could decline over time, especially if global trade pressures intensify.

Millionaire-maker potential

So does Circle have millionaire-maker potential? If you look at the phenomenal growth of the stablecoin industry over the past five years, it's hard to think that it does not. In June 2020, the total value of the stablecoin industry was approximately $10 billion. Today, it's $250 billion. So it has grown 25x over a period of just five years.

By way of comparison, the price of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) in June 2020 was $10,000, and today it is over $100,000. So, while Bitcoin is growing at a multiple of 10x, stablecoins are growing at an even more rapid rate of 25x. Impressive, right?

If you think Bitcoin has millionaire-maker potential, then so does Circle. There's a good reason why Circle was the most highly anticipated crypto IPO since Coinbase Global (NASDAQ: COIN) in 2021. It's simply one of the best pure play crypto stocks out there, with potentially stratospheric future growth potential ahead.

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Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin, Circle Internet Group, and USDC. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Mastercard, and Visa. The Motley Fool recommends Coinbase Global. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

It might sound strange at first, but stablecoins are soaring these days.

I don't mean that the price of Tether (CRYPTO: USDT) or USD Coin (CRYPTO: USDC) is skyrocketing, of course. They are going nowhere from that perspective, essentially pinned to the $1.000 price point as expected. But the entire category of stablecoins is gaining momentum, with lots of new names on the market and a rising tide of trading volumes.

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So let's look at the surging stablecoin category. The calmest corner of the cryptocurrency market can be surprisingly exciting.

What makes stablecoins so... stable?

First, let's think about what stablecoins are good for.

These digital coins have several functions in the crypto world.

With a price permanently pegged to a traditional fiat currency such as the US dollar, the euro, or the Japanese yen, they are a helpful tool for crypto-trading exchanges and banks. Exchanging dollars for Tether or USD Coins is very straightforward, and then you have a crypto-based representation of simple dollars in your digital assets account. From there, you can use the stablecoins to buy other cryptocurrencies, without raising currency exchange questions by involving actual dollars again.

The leading names have become extremely stable over time. Tether prices fluctuated wildly in 2016, ranging from $0.10 to $2.01 when the very concept of stablecoins was new and unproven. The newer USD Coin had a lighter bout of volatility just after its launch in 2018, rising as high as $1.04. But Tether quickly stabilized and hasn't moved more than 1.1% away from a perfect $1.00 in the past five years. USD Coin took a quick 3.4% dip amid the collapse of the experimental Terra stablecoin in 2023.

Any respectable stablecoin looks like a straight horizontal line next to the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) stock market index, other cryptocurrency prices, or any other fluctuating economic data point. Here's a five-year stablecoin vs. S&P 500 chart for your amusement. The big blip of USD Coin uncertainty in 2023 is barely visible:

Tether Price data by YCharts

Beyond Tether: The expanding stable of stablecoins

Tether was the first name in the stablecoin game, and it's still the largest and most widely used option. It's essentially your only choice if you want to use a stablecoin that is independent from specific crypto exchanges.

USD Coin was launched by a group including Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN). It's no surprise to learn that Coinbase defaults to using USD Coin across its trading platforms. That's not the only place you can buy, sell, and hold USD Coin, though. Every major crypto exchange supports it, and there are far more USD Coin transactions on Binance than on Coinbase.

The Sky.money crypto-trading platform is an interesting case. Coinbase launched the USD Coin, but Sky.money worked the other way around. This system started with the USDS (CRYPTO: USDS) stablecoin, formerly known as Dai and Maker. The rest of the trading platform was built around the quirks and requirements of USDS. Sky.money may not ring a bell, but USDS is the third-largest stablecoin by market cap.

And there are many more. For example:

• The Ripple Foundation launched a Ripple USD (CRYPTO: RLUSD) stablecoin in December, basing the coin on US dollars and the XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) cryptocurrency. This coin is helping Ripple's payment services execute international money transfers, serving as a super-liquid pool of cash-backed assets.
• The Tether Holdings group could soon introduce a second version of the Tether coin, specifically aimed at large institutional investors in the United States.
• And this could be the start of a large trend. Asset manager giant Fidelity Investments is planning a stablecoin. Even larger firm Blackrock (NYSE: BLK) introduced one in March 2024. Even Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is open to the idea of an in-house stablecoin, depending on how American regulations will shape up around this opportunity.

So the stablecoin legion is growing larger and more diverse.

Stablecoin trading volumes speak volumes

Whether you're looking at Tether, USD Coin, or USDS, their average daily trading volume has been bubbling up over the last two years.

Tether's average transaction volume stood at $19 billion in early April 2023. Now it's up to $182 billion per 24 hours. USD Coin's volume rose from $6 billion to $28 billion over the same period. The Dai/USDS ecosystem surged from $130 million per day to $2.7 billion.

This is more than empty talk. People (and automated trading algorithms) are putting these stablecoins to work. In all fairness, the rising interest applies to non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies, too. Bitcoin's daily trading volume is up from $9.4 billion to $101 billion, for instance. But the stablecoin community is taking advantage of broader public crypto interests.

More than just trading tools

Stablecoins can do more than just facilitate trades between fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies. Their powers are growing over time, since every new stablecoin option wants to win customers and usage with their unique features.

Some of them offer generous interest rates, putting most savings and money market accounts to shame. The spare cash in my Coinbase account is earning an annual percentage yield (APY) of 4.1% right now. That's comparable to the best money market yields on the market today.

A few stablecoins rely on a specific blockchain system, like the XRP-based Ripple USD coin. Others pick a proven coin-launching foundation such as Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) or Solana (CRYPTO: SOL), depending on their technology to provide data security and smart contract functions. And then there's Tether, which provides transparent support for more than a dozen blockchain networks. That's a diverse approach, protecting Tether holders against platform-specific risks. Tether can always untether itself (har-de-har-har) from any risky or flawed solution, relying on a dozen alternatives instead.

So you see, there's plenty of buzz in the stablecoin sphere right now. There are plenty of alternatives for good reason. These mega-stable coins (often with lucrative yield rates) may look especially attractive when the broader crypto market is experiencing wild volatility, like this week.

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Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Anders Bylund has positions in Coinbase Global, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bank of America, Coinbase Global, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.