XRP Price Hits 6-Month High as Open Interest Soars to Record Levels

The price of XRP hit a six-month high on Wednesday as notional open interest for the third largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization surged to record levels.

The Ripple-linked coin was recently trading hands around $3.05, a 5.1 increase over the past day, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. The asset’s price has climbed as high as $3.31 within the past year, while soaring 420 over the same period.

Notional open interest for XRP perpetual futures, which reflects the amount of money controlled by leveraged positions, surpassed $8.8 billion on Wednesday, according to crypto data provider CoinGlass. That represented cumulative open interest of around 2.89 billion XRP.

Pointing to record levels of market participation on Wednesday, notional open interest for XRP perpetual futures surpassed a previous peak of $8.3 billion in late January, notched days before U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term began.

Among centralized exchanges, notional open interest was concentrated on Bitget and Binance, controlling $1.94 billion and $1.48 billion worth of leveraged positions, respectively.

Across most trading venues, XRP’s funding rate was positive and trending upwards, meaning traders holding long positions were willing to periodically pay traders holding short positions more for leveraged exposure. Generally, that indicates the market is bullish.

“When people are trying to FOMO, and they think the price is going to go up, they‘re willing to pay a higher interest rate to leverage long,” Greg Magadini, director of derivatives at digital asset and market intelligence platform Amberdata, told Decrypt. 

With several cryptocurrencies that were popular during the pandemic-era crypto boom rising this week, analysts say that individual traders appear to be reaching for familiar names. Among altcoins, XRP is widely available, with a lot of retail awareness, Carlos Guzman, an analyst at crypto market GSR, noted to Decrypt on Monday.

XRP’s blockchain, XRP Ledger, has compliance features that could also boost the network’s adoption with the passage of stablecoin legislation, among other crypto-related bills, Matt Kreiser, an analyst at crypto analytics platform Messari, told Decrypt then, too.

Ripple Labs, whose founders created XRP, faced notable scrutiny under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s previous leadership. As that years-long legal battle continues to wind down, analysts have pointed to regulatory tailwinds as one of XRP’s main drivers.