XRP is holding near $2.63 after adding a little over $10 billion in market value this week, but the real story is under the hood.
Derivatives positioning has gone through a full wash–rinse cycle in October: XRP ledger open interest (OI) across exchanges peaked near $3 billion on October 6, collapsed to roughly $1.08 billion by October 17 a collapse of 63%, according to data analyzed by Finbold from CryptoQuant.
XRP open interest recovered to about $1.39 billion as of October 26, the token’s price also bounced while leverage did not, which tells you spot demand steadied first and spec came back second.
XRP ledger open interest hits May 2025 lows
Binance did much of the deleveraging. Its XRP OI slipped back to the same neighborhood as the May 2025 trough, the point that preceded the run from $0.70 to $3.50.
In May, perp funding compressed hard, basis was flat to negative, and market depth improved as new spot buyers absorbed the float. This October, funding and basis have normalized rather than flipped outright bearish, and depth has improved only modestly. In short, we’ve cleaned out leverage, but we haven’t rebuilt two-sided liquidity to May–June levels.
The October 26 jump in XRP open interest is meaningful precisely because it is small. It shows traders are re-engaging, yet the system is still running at half-strength versus early October. Low OI reduces the probability of cascading liquidations in either direction, but it also mutes upside follow-through unless a fresh narrative forces capital back into perps and dated futures. That’s why ETF headlines matter more than usual this week.
XRP ETF news
If the SEC starts green-lighting XRP products, the first place you’ll see it is not in headlines but in term structure: front-month basis should widen, funding should pivot sustainably positive, and OI should climb in tandem with spot volumes rather than against them.
That would be a healthier rebuild than the quick, funding-spiky OI pops we saw during summer squeezes. Conversely, if decisions slip or come in soft, XRP ledger open interest likely plateaus around the $1.3–$1.5 billion band and price action reverts to cash-and-carry flows with range trading anchored to spot.
Technically, the tape reflects the derivatives story. The $2.30–$2.35 area has matured into real spot support after the mid-month flush; $2.50 is the first test of intent; and the $2.70–$2.73 pocket is where late longs from early October start to get their money back.
