XRP Open Interest Crashes to $2B+: Here’s How This Impacts Price Recovery Chances

The XRP open interest has continued to decline, as investors fail to return to the derivatives market after the October 2025 crash.

XRP remains under pressure as the broader market downturn continues into its seventh month. Amid the price decline, on-chain data from Glassnode shows market participation has not recovered after the October 2025 crash, with the XRP Open Interest (OI) still sliding.

Key Points

• XRP’s open interest dropped from 7 billion XRP in October 2025 to 2 billion XRP, marking a 71% collapse.
• OI has since declined further to 1.5 billion XRP worth, showing that traders have not rebuilt positions.
• Coinglass data shows OI peaked above $10 billion in July 2025 before falling after the October 10 crash.
• Low OI shows weak momentum in the short term but could support a stronger and more stable rally if accumulation continues over time.

XRP Seeing Weak Derivatives Activity

In its recent analysis, Glassnode stressed that a major deleveraging event took place in early October 2025, when XRP perpetual futures open interest fell from 7 billion XRP to 2 billion XRP, a 71% drop. This decline came as many leveraged positions were wiped out during the price crash.

Since then, open interest has continued to shrink. Specifically, it has dropped another 25% to 1.5 billion XRP, now valued at about $2.01 billion. 

According to Glassnode, this sustained decline shows that traders have not returned to the derivatives market. Notably, this is largely because market participants are still cautious and unwilling to take on high-risk positions.

Historical Data

Additional data from Coinglass confirms this trend. The chart shows that the XRP open interest rose from about $4 billion in June 2025 to over $10 billion in July 2025. This increase happened during a strong rally that pushed XRP to a new all-time high of $3.6.

After reaching this peak, both price and open interest started to fall. However, open interest stayed relatively high between $7.3 billion and $8.2 billion from late July to early October 2025, showing that traders were still active. 

This changed after the Oct. 10, 2025, crypto market crash, which caused heavy liquidations across the market. During this period, the XRP open interest dropped from $9 billion on Oct. 7 to $3.49 billion by Oct. 19, 2025.

The decline continued in the following months. Specifically, open interest stayed near $3 billion until January 2026, then fell further to $2.6 billion by early February 2026. 

It now stands at about $2.4 billion based on Coinglass data. This is slightly higher than Glassnode’s figure of $2.01 billion (1.5 billion XRP), mainly because Coinglass tracks a wider range of data. Even so, both sources show that open interest has not recovered since the October crash and has kept falling.

How Does This Impact XRP’s Recovery Chances

With lower open interest, price movement often becomes weaker and less clear. Notably, fewer active positions mean less momentum, which can lead to slow trends, weak breakouts, and short rallies that do not last. This helps explain why XRP has struggled to hold gains during recent attempts to recover.

Meanwhile, lower leverage also reduces the chances of sudden, sharp moves caused by liquidations. This can make the market feel calmer for a while. However, if open interest starts to rise again, volatility could quickly rise.

There are two ways to look at the current situation. On the bearish side, the low open interest shows weak confidence, suggesting that large traders are either staying away or quietly buying in the spot market instead of using leverage. This can slow down any strong recovery.

On the other hand, the drop in XRP’s open interest could be a healthy reset over the long term. When the market removes excess leverage, it becomes more stable, which can support stronger and more lasting rallies later on. In most cases, major uptrends begin after this kind of reset.