TL;DR
- XRP Open Interest Decline: Binance open interest fell to $521.5 million on September 29, down 15.3% from the six-month high recorded on September 22, signaling reduced speculative exposure.
- Leverage Reset: Funding rates and leverage ratios declined, indicating traders scaled back risk even as price remained near recent highs.
- Unclear Direction: Higher reserves and stronger network activity contrast with declining leverage, creating conditions that have historically supported range-bound trading rather than a decisive trend.
Binance data tracked by CryptoQuant shows a notable reduction in speculative positioning around XRP after a strong rally earlier in September. Open interest on Binance fell to $521.5 million on September 29, down 15.3% from the six-month high of $616.1 million recorded on September 22. Despite the decline in leveraged activity, XRP price remained relatively resilient, closing at $1.49 on September 29, only 5.2% below its six-month high of $1.572 reached a week earlier.
The data suggests that traders have been reducing risk exposure faster than the market has been giving back gains. For XRP, that shift points to a changing derivatives environment rather than a sharp deterioration in spot demand.
XRP Binance Open Interest Falls 15.3% From Its Six-Month High
“For now, the clearest reading is that XRP shed leverage while price held most of its gains.” – By @CryptoOnchain pic.twitter.com/HsZlH8kvbR
— CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) October 1, 2026
Open Interest and Leverage Move Lower
The reduction in open interest coincided with a broader easing of leverage metrics across Binance. Funding rates declined from 0.010 to 0.005, while the estimated leverage ratio dropped from 0.230 to 0.197. Even so, leverage remains above the six-month average of 0.169. According to the data, the unwind began six days after the September 16 FOMC rate cut and continued into the September 30 quarter-end period.
One possible explanation, though unverified, is that traders reduced leveraged long positions ahead of quarter-end instead of selling spot holdings. For XRP, this means a substantial amount of speculative exposure has already been removed from the market. The retreat also shows that XRP traders grew more cautious, even as price losses remained limited.
Liquidation Pressure Flips Direction
Short liquidations reached $13.70 million on September 21, marking a six-month high after the price broke above $1.50. That momentum shifted quickly. From September 23 onward, long liquidations became the dominant force, reaching $8.43 million on September 23 and $5.66 million on September 28.
Binance long liquidations averaged $3.72 million per day between September 24 and 29. That figure stands 2.6 times above the six-month daily average of $1.43 million. The change highlights how XRP market participants aggressively reduced leveraged exposure after the earlier surge. At the same time, XRP managed to retain most of the gains achieved during the rally.
Market Reset Leaves Direction Unclear
Other indicators show mixed conditions. Binance reserves averaged 2.68 billion XRP during the last seven days, 2.4% above the 90-day baseline. Meanwhile, network transactions averaged 1.96 million, representing a 23.0% week-over-week increase. The overall picture suggests XRP has gone through a meaningful leverage reset. With XRP leverage falling more rapidly than price, market positioning appears to be normalizing. Historically, similar conditions have often preceded range-bound trading periods, leaving the next major move unresolved.
