The XRP open interest has fluctuated over the last year, moving from peaks to lows as the market has struggled to determine a direction. Now, the tides look to be changing as the open interest seems to be maintaining a steady uptrend, moving toward levels not seen since 2025, and this could have some bullish implications for the cryptocurrency.
XRP Open Interest Could Signal A Return Of The Bulls
The XRP open interest has dropped by a significant amount in the year 2026, following the bearish trend that has rocked the crypto market. This is no surprise, as the XRP price has struggled during this time, and with the correlation between price and open interest, the open interest has suffered greatly.
However, with the recent price recovery, the XRP open interest is beginning to move again, recovering from its $2.11 billion low from earlier in the year to approximately $3 billion at the time of this report. This suggests that interest is flooding back into the market and traders are picking up the altcoin again.
Interestingly, with the interest returning, the XRP Long/Short Ratio on the Coinglass site is showing that traders are betting in favor of the price rising further. The site shows that in a 24-hour period, 51.58% of all volume was in favor of price rising (longs). Meanwhile, 48.24% are in favor of the price continuing to crash (shorts), so while not a large disparity, there is still a clear line of expectation.
Historically, though, prices have tended to go the opposite way of what retail is expecting. This simply means that when bets pile up in favor of the price rising, this is usually when the price declines. Thus, it is likely that the price could drop given that more traders are expecting the price to keep rising.
As for the XRP open interest, a continuation of the increase could trigger a push for the price as more volume flows in. However, the cryptocurrency is still mostly dependent on the broader market performance, suggesting that if the Bitcoin price doesn’t recover, it is likely to take the rest of the market down with it.
