XRP Tags $1.60 on $7.4B Volume While CME Funds Quietly Fold 46.3M Shorts 📉➡️📈

XRP reached an intraday high of $1.60 on September 22, with reported trading volume near $7.4 billion, a tape that resembled a short squeeze. The move followed a sharp repositioning on regulated U.S. derivatives venues, where leveraged funds trimmed bearish exposure ahead of the rally. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Commitments of Traders data for the week ended September 15 shows that leveraged funds cut their CME net short position by 46.3 million XRP, moving from 82.25 million XRP on September 8 to 35.95 million XRP on September 15, with most of the reduction coming from short covering alongside a smaller addition of new longs. CME open interest still declined by about 25.45 million XRP over the same period, pointing to deleveraging even as directional bets flipped less negative.

The picture looked different on offshore venues. Coinbase-International books remained heavily short at roughly 141.6 million XRP, a venue split that shows short covering on CME did not translate into a uniform unwind across platforms. The next CFTC print, due around September 25, will be the first to test whether the CME covering continued into the latest week or whether the divergence between CME and Coinbase deepened as spot pushed toward $1.60.

Reported trading volume on the day, near $7.4 billion, was concentrated around the September 22 intraday high and marked one of the largest single-session turnovers for XRP this quarter. Contracts cited are CME's standard XRP futures, sized at 50,000 XRP per contract, with positions reported in contract-equivalent units.