XRP Holds $1.29 While Futures Traders Quietly Fold Their $250M Leverage Tent 🏕️

XRP traded near $1.30 on September 17, 2026, up roughly 1%, even as open interest across its derivatives market contracted from $1.128 billion in August to $871.22 million, a drop of more than $250 million in under a month. The divergence between a resilient spot price and a shrinking futures book has put the spotlight on whether bullish conviction is fading or whether leverage is simply being reset against steady spot demand.

A decline in open interest generally indicates that traders are closing futures positions, absorbing liquidations, or repositioning ahead of a directional move. The current contraction does not by itself confirm a bearish shift for Ripple's token and may instead reflect traders trimming exposure without committing to a clear directional stance. Venue-level data supports that reading. Binance open interest fell from $558 million to $423 million, while Bybit open interest dropped from $379 million to $291 million over the same period, a broad-based contraction rather than a single-exchange anomaly.

Positioning and funding data keep the setup from reading as outright capitulation. Binance's OI-weighted funding rate remained positive, indicating that long exposure still outweighs short exposure among the contracts still open. The overall 24-hour long/short ratio stood at 0.9904, close to balanced, though that headline figure masked a more lopsided picture among larger accounts. The combination of positive funding near a neutral ratio is consistent with leverage being unwound rather than positions being flipped bearish.

XRP's spot price has held above $1.29 throughout the period of falling open interest, suggesting that demand on the spot side has absorbed selling that might otherwise have pushed the market lower. Traders cited in market commentary have pointed to the simultaneous decline in futures exposure and stability in spot as a classic signature of a leverage reset rather than a trend reversal, though no consensus call on direction has emerged. Liquidation data and order-book depth across major venues were not cited as drivers of the move.

The article is based on reporting by Ahmed Barakat for Cryptonews, reviewed by the CryptoNews Editorial Team. Reported figures include the $1.128 billion to $871.22 million open-interest decline, the Binance and Bybit venue breakdowns of $558 million to $423 million and $379 million to $291 million respectively, the 0.9904 overall long/short ratio, and the spot price near $1.30 as of September 17, 2026.