Is The XRP Rally Losing Steam? Open Interest Drops Slightly on Exchange

XRP futures traders seem to be pulling back as open interest drops, currency rates weaken, and exchange activity slows down significantly.

XRP failed to break above $1.40 on Wednesday despite optimism earlier in the week about a possible resolution to the Iran conflict. At the same time, derivatives data suggest that speculative activity in the market is cooling.

Open interest in XRP derivatives fell sharply on all major trading platforms after a period of intense speculation associated with the commodity’s rally towards the peak of its cycle in July 2025.

Symptoms of Cooling After a Prolonged Thaw

Tracking new open interest data for many trades shows that the total number of futures contracts active has dropped significantly in almost all major markets, indicating a decrease in profitable participation. Open interest represents the number of futures contracts that remain active in the market, and a decrease usually means that traders are closing positions or reducing exposure.

Despite the wide decline, Binance continues to hold the largest share of XRP output 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 peak readings seen in mid-2025 when XRP reached its peak cycle and speculative trading activity intensified.

After analyzing the closing data for all exchanges, CryptoQuant found a clear dominance of long closings compared to short closings, both in quantity and in absolute value. This pattern suggests that bullish traders have been equally affected by recent market volatility.

The report also said that prolonged monetary shutdowns tend to depress interest rates, often returning them to neutral or negative levels. Such conditions usually indicate weak bullish sentiment and increased caution among derivatives traders.

Market Share is Slow

Meanwhile, activity involving the transfer of XRP to and from major cryptocurrency exchanges has fallen to its lowest level since the index’s launch. The data comes from Multi Exchanges Daily Depositing/withdrawing Transactions Delta, a metric that tracks the amount of XRP deposit and withdrawal activities across 15 major trading platforms.

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According to the analysis, the sharp drop in transaction activity comes after the price of XRP has fallen by more than 60% from the peak recorded last summer. The drop in deposits and withdrawals means fewer users are currently interacting with the exchange, in what appears to be a significant decline in all cryptocurrency exchange-related activity.