Open interest (OI) in XRP derivatives on Binance jumped 14.8% in the last 24 hours, its highest reading since March 4, when the metric peaked near 16%.
The move was accompanied by repeated long liquidations and a change in order flow toward short positioning, painting a mixed picture for the Ripple token.
Leverage Returns, But Longs Keep Getting Washed
According to analyst Amr Taha, the high open interest reading meant traders are aggressively going back to the derivatives market and rebuilding exposure in XRP. However, while the OI increase is the headline number, the surrounding data has complicated the bullish reading, with Taha identifying three significant long liquidation events that occurred in quick succession.
Over $2.5 million was lost on March 18, followed by $2.45 million on March 21, and around $2.15 million on March 26. He said that each event wiped out crowded bullish positions at a time when leverage was building up, something he suggested was a sign that conviction is still unstable.
“Rising open interest usually reflects growing speculative activity,” he explained. “But repeated long liquidation spikes show that bullish positioning is still being punished during volatility.”
What made the picture even more defensive was that the rise in open interest happened in tandem with a drop in Binance’s Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD), a metric that tracks the net direction of futures orders. Per Taha’s analysis, when OI climbs and Perp CVD falls, then it usually means that new short positions are entering the market instead of fresh longs. Spot CVD also weakened during the same period, implying that retail buyers didn’t step in to offset the shift.
The largest clusters of vulnerable positions are sitting above XRP’s current price, meaning if the asset pushes higher, it could trigger a short squeeze. Still, Taha noted that the path of least resistance favors sellers for now.
Where XRP Stands in the Broader Picture
Looking at the market, XRP was trading at around $1.36 at the time of writing, down 2% in 24 hours and nearly 7% over the past 7 days. Furthermore, the token is almost 63% below its all-time high of $3.65, set in July 2025, and down 42% year-on-year.
Its 24-hour trading range of $1.34 to $1.39, according to CoinGecko, shows the tight, directionless price action that has persisted for much of March.
A previous assessment by analyst CasiTrades placed XRP inside a wider bearish wave structure, with a downside target of $0.87 being in play unless the token breaks and holds above $1.65. But on a more positive note, EGRAG CRYPTO has made bold predictions for XRP, stating that it could go up as far as $27 by August 2027, although the entire framework rests on the asset first bottoming near that same $0.87 level CasiTrades identified as a likely downside destination.
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