On this Friday’s episode of “The Overzealous Trade,” we take a look at price action in Circle Internet (CRCL) during the premarket session and into the first few minutes of regular trade.

Before getting into the move, here’s how the trade set up.

This was a premarket headline scalp that turned into an opening fade setup. The first opportunity was for traders watching the 6 a.m. release in real time, when Circle disclosed final U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency approval to establish a national trust bank.

That was the headline. But the context was that Circle had already disclosed conditional OCC approval in December 2025. So the final approval was real news, but not totally unexpected news.

Here’s the timeline:

– 6 a.m. EDT sharp: company press release discloses final U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) approval to establish a national trust bank
– By 6:20 a.m.: stock rallies 9%
– By 7:10 a.m.: stock adds on another 4%, marking a pre-market high at $73.77
– 9:30 a.m.: stock tanks 8% in first 10 mins of trade

Shares remain about 5% higher on the news but we could ask: could the sell off after the open have been guessed?

One thing pointed out by a few members of the STN community this morning before market open – when CRCL was up 13%: we were already pretty sure Circle was going to win OCC approval for the national trust bank classification.

The company had disclosed in a December 2025-press release conditional approval from the OCC for the charter. Word of the final approval this morning was “news” in that final approval was a new piece of information, but the market had been preparing for this to happen for at least the last few months.

So was a 13% move higher justified for something we were already pretty sure was going to happen?

Sometimes when we see pre-market traders get excited about a release, making fundamental sense of a news item can lead to opportunities for trades.