Circle Internet Corp. closed at $80.45, down 6.78%, as trading saw a daily range from $78.26 to $85.96 amid elevated volume of 25.74 million shares and a turnover rate of 10.13 percent.

Wednesday’s options tape was dominated by two institutional-sized prints—a $2.70 million short put and a $2.68 million out-of-the-money call buy. Both trades leaned bullish, with the biggest flows structured for upside participation or downside premium collection rather than crash protection, signaling strong conviction among large traders despite the stock’s sharp daily decline.

>>>Start OPTIONS trading & earn up to SGD 200 in rewards!

Options Indicators

CRCL’s implied volatility stands at 77.87%, but the IV percentile is only 12.75%, which indicates that despite the headline IV level appearing high in absolute terms, current option pricing is actually cheap relative to its own recent history and volatility is sitting on the lower side of its range. This is reinforced by the IV/HV ratio of 0.73, suggesting implied volatility is running below historical realized volatility, so options appear relatively inexpensive rather than richly priced.

The Call/Put volume ratio is 1.09.

Large Trades

A $2.70 million short put stood out as one of the largest trades, with 2,700 contracts sold on the March 19, 2027 $70.00 put. With CRCL referenced at $80.45, this strike sits out of the money, making the position a moderately bullish income-style trade that expresses confidence the stock can stay above $70.00 into expiration. By selling downside premium at a lower strike, the trader appears willing to collect option premium while taking on the obligation to buy shares if CRCL declines below that level, which is typically consistent with constructive sentiment rather than an outright bearish view.

A $2.68 million call purchase was the other dominant block, consisting of 5,000 contracts bought on the October 16, 2026 $85.00 call. With the stock at $80.45, the call was also out of the money, so this trade represents a clear directional upside bet that looks for CRCL to rise above the strike over time. Unlike premium-collection positioning, this buyer paid upfront for convex upside exposure, suggesting the trader is targeting a meaningful advance rather than simply defending an existing position.

Overall, the large-trade flow points clearly bullish. The two biggest trades were both constructive upside expressions—one via out-of-the-money put selling and the other via out-of-the-money call buying—while the only bearish print was very small by comparison. Taken together, the bulk order profile suggests institutional traders are positioning for higher prices or at least sustained resilience in CRCL, with sentiment skewed strongly toward upside participation rather than downside protection.

Strategy Reference

Because IV percentile is only 12.75%, selling premium may offer limited reward, so traders looking for a low assignment probability could consider a bull put spread—such as selling the October 2026 $70.00 put and buying the $55.00 put—to define risk without posting as much margin as a naked short put while still aligning with the bullish institutional flow.