XRP Open Interest Is Back Above Pre-CLARITY Levels

The Number That Came Back

Open interest, i.e. the total amount of futures contracts still open, is the cleanest read on how much leverage traders are willing to carry. On Binance, XRP open interest stood at 304.4 million XRP at 18:00 UTC on Sept. 15, minutes before the Senate’s 49-50 cloture vote sank the CLARITY Act. In the two hours that followed, XRP dropped from $1.40 to $1.29.

Traders subsequently bailed, and the count bottomed at 285.2 million XRP on Sept. 17 (midnight UTC), and later that day Bitcoin.com News reported that Cryptoquant had measured a roughly 32% slide in Binance XRP open interest since Aug. 22.

Then the tide turned and by 04:00 UTC Sept. 18, open interest had climbed to 307.7 million XRP, a solid rebound from the low and about 1% above the pre-vote level. The claim, first flagged by analyst CW8900, holds up in coin terms but not quite in dollar terms (since the same positions are worth $414.7 million against $427.6 million before the vote, because each XRP is now worth less).

What Changed Overnight

Institutional money has been working continuously too, with Franklin’s XRPZ exchange-traded fund (ETF) taking in $3.5 million on Sept. 16, the entire XRP ETF inflow that day, while bitcoin and ether ETFs shed $520 million after the Federal Reserve raised rates by a quarter point, its first hike since July 2023.

Bitcoin’s price action in the meantime has firmed, climbing from about $76,400 to $77,800 at present. XRP gained roughly 3% over 24 hours and is currently trading near $1.33, a modest bounce next to its 57% loss over the past year.

The levels traders are watching:

• $1.28: The support level some analysts say must be held at all costs, with $1.05 as the next stop if it breaks.
• $1.23 to $1.30: A “bull market support band” which, if XRP continues to tap, could help form a comfortable support level.
• $1.25: Roughly where XRP bottomed intraday on Sept. 16, after the CLARITY vote.