Chandhok Nikhil 4

What Happened

• Nikhil Chandhok, Chief Product & Tech. Officer at Circle (CRCL), exercised a total of 700,144 option-derived shares on June 24–25, 2026 (460,007 + 29,730 on 6/24; 199,993 + 10,414 on 6/25), paying about $18.36 million in exercise price.
• On June 24 he sold 489,737 shares in multiple open-market transactions for total proceeds of about $35.44 million. The sales were made pursuant to a 10b5‑1 plan to cover tax withholding from the exercises.

Key Details

• Exercise (acquired): 700,144 shares total — 460,007 @ $25.81 ($11,872,781), 29,730 @ $32.95 ($979,604), 199,993 @ $25.81 ($5,161,819), 10,414 @ $32.95 ($343,141). Total exercise cash paid ≈ $18,357,345.
• Sales (disposed on 6/24): 489,737 shares across multiple tranches, total proceeds ≈ $35,444,365. Sale price ranges reported: $70.15–$75.47 (see footnotes for tranche-level weighted averages).
• Net after transactions: gross sales ~$35.44M minus exercise cost ~$18.36M ≈ net ≈ $17.09M realized (before taxes/fees).
• Shares held after filing (per filing): 436,140 shares held outright and 296,076 shares subject to outstanding restricted stock units (RSUs). (See Footnote F8.)
• Footnote F1: sales were pursuant to a 10b5‑1 trading plan to cover tax withholding obligations. Footnotes F2–F7 detail price ranges and weighted averages for the multiple sale tranches. Footnote F9 describes option vesting schedule.
• Filing timeliness: no late filing indicated in the report.

Context

• This is a common insider pattern: options were exercised and a portion of the resulting shares were immediately sold under a pre-established 10b5‑1 plan to cover tax obligations (a cashless-style outcome). The filing shows both the option exercise (derivative transactions) and the open-market sales.
• These transactions are procedural and tax-related in nature; they do not, by themselves, indicate a change in company outlook. Retail investors often view purchases as stronger signals than routine sales made to satisfy tax withholding.