XRP Rebound Bets Build Despite Slump Near $1 as Futures Longs Rise

XRP continues to languish around the $1 mark, but futures traders on major crypto exchanges are adding to long positions in a bet on a price rebound.

CoinDesk reported on Aug. 17, citing CoinGlass data, that XRP futures open interest rose 2% over the past 24 hours to about $2.78 billion. Futures trading volume surged 55% in the same period to about $1.17 billion.

On Binance, accounts holding XRP long positions outnumbered those with short positions by more than 3 to 1. Among large traders, the long-to-short ratio widened to about 3.6 to 1. OKX also showed a 3.6-to-1 tilt in favor of longs.

The amount of XRP tied up in the futures market is also increasing. Tokens included in open futures positions now total about 2.77 billion, up sharply from about 2 billion in early summer.

Investor sentiment, however, is moving in the opposite direction. On-chain analytics firm Santiment said XRP-related sentiment across social media platforms including X, Reddit and Telegram has deteriorated to its most negative level in three months. The rise in pessimism comes as XRP, which traded above $3 last year, has fallen back to around $1.

Network activity, by contrast, is showing signs of recovery. Santiment said active addresses on the XRP Ledger reached about 50,000 over the past 24 hours, the highest level in more than two months.

Still, the broader derivatives market has yet to show a clear long bias. The 24-hour long-to-short ratio across all exchanges stood at about 0.93, indicating a relatively balanced market. That suggests the strongest rebound bets are concentrated on Binance, OKX and some large traders.

CoinDesk added that traders are also watching the risk of cascading liquidations in leveraged long positions if XRP falls below $1. If declining prices leave long positions undercollateralized and trigger forced liquidations, the result could be additional selling pressure.