It appears that XRP futures traders have dropped significantly following a drop in open interest, weakening funding levels and exchange trading activity.
Despite early week’s optimism about a potential resolution to the Iran conflict, XRP failed to rise above $1.40 on Wednesday. At the same time, the derived data show that the speculative activity in the market has cooled down.
Open interest in XRP derivatives on major trading platforms has waned sharply following a period of intense speculative activity that accompanied the asset’s rally to its peak in July 2025.
Cold symptoms after long-term heavy lifting
New multi-exchange open interest tracking data shows that the total value of active futures contracts has declined significantly across nearly all major exchanges, indicating a reduction in leverage used. Open interest represents the total number of futures contracts that remain active in the market, and a decrease usually means that traders are closing positions or reducing risk.
Despite the broader decline, Binance retains the largest share of XRP derivatives activity, as open interest currently stands at around $222 million. Bybit follows with about $195 million in open interest. While these numbers remain higher than the lowest levels recorded in 2024, they are well below the high readings seen in mid-2025, when XRP reached its all-time high and speculative trading activity intensified.
After reviewing liquidation data on exchanges, CryptoQuant found a clear advantage of long liquidations over short liquidations in terms of both frequency and total value. This pattern suggests that bull traders are disproportionately affected by market volatility.
The report also states that prolonged severe liquidation typically reduces funding levels, often returning them to neutral or even negative territory. Such conditions generally reflect a weakening of bullish sentiment and increased caution among derivatives traders.
Market participation is slowing down
Meanwhile, XRP trading activity on major cryptocurrency exchanges fell to the lowest level since the indicator was introduced. The data comes from Multi Exchanges Daily Depositing/Returning Transactions Delta, a metric that tracks the number of depositing and withdrawing XRP transactions across 15 major trading platforms.
You may also like:
According to the analysis, the sharp drop in transaction activity comes after the price of XRP has fallen by more than 60% from the highs of last summer. The drop in deposits and withdrawals means that fewer users are currently interacting with exchanges, which appears to be a significant slowdown in overall exchange-related activity for cryptocurrency.
Binance Free $600 (CryptoPotato Exclusive): Use this link to register a new account and get a $600 welcome offer on Binance (full details).
LIMITED OFFER for CryptoPotato readers at Bybit: Use this link to register and open a FREE $500 position on any coin!
