XRP Combined CVD Selling Nears $2 Billion

XRP has seen heavy selling across spot and perpetual futures markets, with combined cumulative volume delta (CVD) down nearly $2 billion.

This occurred between Sept. 23 and Oct. 16. During the same period, XRP’s open interest on Binance and Bybit dropped considerably, indicating that traders were reducing their positions amid the persistent selling pressure.

XRP CVD Shows Widespread Selling

For context, cumulative volume delta (CVD) measures the difference between aggressive market buys and sells. When CVD falls, it means sellers are hitting buyers’ bids more often than buyers are lifting sellers’ offers. This shows continued selling pressure, not normal back-and-forth trading.

Across all centralized exchanges, the estimated spot XRP CVD fell from -$1.9 billion to -$3.2 billion during the period under consideration. This marked a further $1.3 billion in net aggressive selling. 

Meanwhile, Binance’s perpetual XRP CVD also declined, moving from -$812 million to -$1.5 billion, a further drop of $688 million. 

Both figures show that selling pressure affected spot trading and leveraged derivatives at the same time. The two readings recorded a combined CVD decline of $1.988 billion, bringing the total close to $2 billion. 

This trend had already emerged earlier in the quarter. By mid-September, on-chain data showed that Binance’s perpetual CVD had fallen to around -$1 billion, while estimated spot CVD across centralized exchanges stood at approximately -$2.1 billion, according to CryptoQuant data. 

With the recent decline moving close to $2 billion again, the data shows that selling continued beyond mid-September and pushed both readings further into negative territory.

XRP Open Interest Falls on Binance and Bybit

The XRP CVD drop also coincided with a drop in derivatives positions on Binance and Bybit. On Binance, XRP open interest fell from 302 million XRP to 228 million XRP, a decline of 74 million XRP, or 24.5%. 

Bybit recorded a larger drop, with open interest falling from 359 million XRP to 258 million XRP, a reduction of 101 million XRP, or 28.1%. Across both exchanges, open interest declined by a combined 175 million XRP, representing a 26.5% reduction in outstanding derivatives positions. 

Notably, open interest measures the total number of futures and perpetual contracts that remain active. When it falls alongside declining prices and increasingly negative CVD, it often indicates that traders are closing leveraged long positions, not necessarily opening new short positions. This suggests deleveraging. 

Importantly, deleveraging can help remove excess leverage from the market. As traders close their positions, the smaller derivatives market may face less forced selling once most vulnerable long positions have exited. However, this does not guarantee an immediate recovery.

XRP Liquidations Confirm the Market-Wide Unwind

Meanwhile, liquidation data also confirms the pressure on bullish traders. During the period under consideration, XRP recorded several long-liquidation spikes exceeding $10 million each, with one peak reaching nearly $17 million. 

XRP’s liquidation heatmap also shows a notable difference between the size of potential liquidations above and below the current price. 

Specifically, two highlighted short-liquidation clusters above the market contain a combined $54.7 million, while two highlighted long-liquidation clusters below the market total just $14.17 million.

The short-liquidation clusters above the current price are about 3.86 times larger than the highlighted long-liquidation clusters below it. This suggests that the larger concentration of potentially trapped leveraged positions lies among short sellers above XRP’s current price.