XRP leverage collapses 78%, but $1.4B in ETF money still won’t leave because of Ripple’s expanding footprint

XRP’s price performance is stripping out fast-money participation while leaving behind a more durable class of holders.

According to CryptoSlate's data, XRP is trading at $1.37 as of press time, down 55% within the last six months.

This comes as data from CoinGlass shows XRP's open interest has fallen to about $2.40 billion from a July peak of $10.94 billion, a drop of roughly 78% that leaves positioning at its lowest level since January 2025.

The decline points to a market that has already flushed out much of the speculative leverage that helped power the token’s earlier rally following Donald Trump's 2024 victory.

At the same time, several parts of the XRP market are still showing signs of longer-duration commitment, with significant whale accumulation and transfers away from exchanges.

This is occurring at the same time when spot XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are still holding more than $1 billion worth of the assets in their custody.

Essentially, the XRP support base currently comes from holders who appear more willing to endure volatility, and from Ripple's corporate strategy, which is still broadening the token’s potential access to regulated financial channels.

Leverage has been wrung out of the trade

The first major change in XRP’s market structure is evident in the derivatives market.

Data from CryptoQuant show that open interest across major XRP futures venues has dropped sharply from mid-2025 peaks, while repeated liquidation events have hit leveraged traders.

Binance remains the largest single venue, with current XRP open interest at $222 million, followed by ByBit at $195 million, according to CryptoQuant’s exchange breakdown.

Those levels remain above the lows seen in 2024, but they sit far below the peak conditions that accompanied XRP’s cycle high in July 2025.

CryptoQuant’s liquidation data show that long traders' liquidations have dominated short traders in both number and size.

That pattern usually pulls funding rates lower and leaves the market in a more neutral or defensive posture.

In practical terms, traders who were using leverage to chase upside have already been forced out or have chosen to step back, while those with bearish positioning are enjoying some respite.

Taken together, the data points to a market that has already gone through an extensive deleveraging cycle. That changes the character of the trade.

A sharp reduction in open interest can remove one source of downside pressure because fewer leveraged positions remain exposed to forced liquidations during every fresh drop. It also means any new upside move has to be carried more by spot demand and less by reflexive short-term positioning.

Whales and ETF holders stay put through the drawdown

While speculative positioning has fallen sharply, on-chain and ETF flow data suggest a different cohort has maintained its exposure during the selloff.

For context, data from CryptoQuant shows XRP has seen large exchange outflows during the recent period of market pressure.

On Feb. 6, Binance recorded an outflow of 530 million XRP, worth more than $720 million at the time, when the token traded near $1.37. A second large move followed on Feb. 9, totaling 278 million XRP.

Such transfers usually reduce immediately available exchange supply and are often read as a sign that whales or institutions are moving assets into cold storage or preparing to hold for longer periods.

The signal is useful, though it does not offer a complete answer on its own. Exchange outflows can reflect accumulation, but they can also reflect internal wallet movements or the reshuffling of custody.

Even so, the scale of the Feb. 6 and Feb. 9 moves falls within the same window where ETF traders' conviction in the token remains strong, giving the episode more weight.

On March 10, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart stated that the XRP spot ETFs have accumulated more than $1.4 billion since launching in November.

Seyffart pointed out that the capital has remained in place even after XRP fell significantly from the $3 level it held just before the ETFs went live.

Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Eric Balchunas wrote on X that the showing was notable given the drawdown.

According to him:

Balchunas attributed the resilience largely to committed buyers who are “largely XRP superfans versus casual retail.”

That observation fits XRP’s market history. The token has held on to a loyal following of the “XRP Army” through the years of the SEC legal clash and long stretches when broader crypto attention moved elsewhere.

The ETF data suggests that loyalty has carried over into the listed wrapper, where investors often behave differently than they do in spot markets or on leveraged exchanges.

The contrast between collapsing open interest and steady ETF assets gives the current market a distinct tone, suggesting that the base of holders supporting XRP has become less dependent on momentum traders.

Ripple's expanding regulated footprint gives XRP market leverage

Ripple’s continued business expansion is giving XRP an added layer of support, with the company maintaining that the token remains central to its payments, custody, liquidity, and treasury management strategy.

The latest step came on March 11, when Ripple said it had secured an Australian Financial Services License through its acquisition of BC Payments Australia.

That followed recent licensing moves in the UK and Luxembourg, part of a broader effort to extend its regulated footprint globally. Ripple says it now holds more than 75 regulatory licenses worldwide.

At the same time, the company has continued to scale the business infrastructure behind that regulatory reach.

According to Ripple, Ripple Payments is now active in more than 60 major markets and has processed more than $100 billion in volume.

Meanwhile, Ripple is also aggressively expanding its stablecoin business. RLUSD’s market capitalization recently surpassed $1.3 billion, while the company also disclosed conditional approval for an Office of the Comptroller of the Currency charter (OCC).

Notably, the Brad Garlinghouse-led firm has also quietly built a full-stack institutional financial platform that settles, secures, and moves digital money globally.

Garlinghouse also noted that:

Together, those milestones give XRP a support narrative that many large-cap altcoins lack.

While Bitcoin remains the market’s main macro driver, XRP is increasingly trading on a more company-specific story tied to regulated access, cross-border payments, and financial infrastructure.

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