Community Trust ScoreVerified
XRP got hit hard. Between October 7 and 8, long liquidations across Binance, Bybit, and OKX totaled $40.70 million, per market-data provider XRPL.to. Short liquidations were a fraction of that — just $1.72 million. XRP was sitting around $1.40 when the forced closures piled up.
Why It Matters
The significant liquidation of long positions in XRP highlights the volatility and risk associated with trading cryptocurrencies, particularly in a market that can shift rapidly. The disproportionate size of long versus short liquidations indicates a bearish sentiment among traders, which could lead to further downward pressure on XRP's price. This event also underscores the importance of monitoring leverage and liquidation risks as investors navigate the increasingly complex crypto derivatives landscape.
Binance took the biggest chunk of those longs. XRPL.to put Binance’s share at $24.69 million, with Bybit close behind at $11.65 million and OKX accounting for $4.36 million. Worth noting: those figures represent the notional value of contracts, not straight cash losses out of traders’ pockets. But the scale of the flush was real enough to reshape the market’s positioning for days afterward.
Spot trading on Binance basically fell off a cliff in the days that followed.
Spot Volume Craters While Price Edges Up
From October 8 through October 10, XRP/USDT turnover on Binance dropped 78.6%. That’s a steep fall. And yet the daily closing price of XRP actually crept up 1.6% over the same stretch — a weird split that raises obvious questions about what’s actually driving the price.
The buyer-initiated trade data makes it murkier. On October 9, buyers were behind 51.8% of trades on Binance. By October 10, that number had slid to 43.1%. So prices went up, volume collapsed, and the share of aggressive buying dropped. Not exactly the picture of a healthy recovery. Probably more sellers stepping back than buyers stepping in — a subtle but important difference.
Crypto markets have seen this pattern before. Futures liquidations clear out overleveraged longs, prices stabilize or nudge higher on thin volume, and the spot market takes a while to catch up — or doesn’t. Whether XRP’s spot side shows up is the real question here.
Open Interest Rebuilds, But Stays Below Pre-Crash Levels
Open interest told its own story. On October 9, Binance’s XRPUSDT open interest fell 8.1% to 295.47 million XRP. Bybit dropped 6.6% to 197.90 million XRP. By October 11, both exchanges had clawed some of that back. Binance added 3.72 million XRP — a 1.3% rise. Bybit gained 6.46 million XRP, up 3.3%. But both remained below where they were on October 8. Binance was still down 7.4% from that level, Bybit down 5.2%.
In dollar terms, the drop was even sharper. Binance’s open-interest value fell 10.7%, from $456.53 million to $407.60 million. That decline outpaced the drop in raw XRP contract count, which means the implied value per XRP fell during the period. Contracts were being cut, and the ones that stayed were worth less.
Funding rates shifted, too. On October 9, all three platforms — Binance, Bybit, OKX — had negative funding rates. Longs were paying shorts to stay in their positions. By October 10, Binance flipped to 0.0068% positive and Bybit to 0.0015% positive. OKX stayed slightly negative. The flip on Binance and Bybit means longs now carry a cost, which can slow the rebuilding of futures exposure if prices don’t cooperate.
Futures Exposure Doesn’t Mean Spot Demand
It’s worth being clear about what’s actually happening here. The contracts on Binance, Bybit, and OKX are USDT-settled. Traders get exposure to XRP’s price movement without ever touching the underlying token. So a rebound in open interest doesn’t mean anyone’s actually buying XRP in the spot market. It just means more bets are being placed on where the price goes.
For people holding actual XRP, that gap matters. Futures activity can push prices around — especially in thin spot markets — but it can’t substitute for real buying pressure over time. And right now, the spot side looks kind of soft. Volume is down sharply, buyer-initiated trades are declining, and the small price gain over October 8–10 came without much conviction behind it.
The funding rate shift is maybe the most interesting wrinkle. Longs paying a carry cost on Binance and Bybit can dampen enthusiasm fast, especially if price action stays sideways. Traders holding leveraged long positions need the price to move in their favor just to break even on the funding cost. That’s a pressure point.
By October 11, the futures rebuild was real but incomplete. Open interest was rising again on both Binance and Bybit, and the liquidation wave had clearly passed. But the spot market hadn’t followed, and the percentage of buyer-initiated trades on Binance sat at 43.1% — still below the 50% line that would signal genuine buying dominance.
Hub: XRP price, news, and analysis
Frequently Asked Questions
How much was liquidated in XRP long positions between October 7 and 8?
XRPL.to recorded $40.70 million in long liquidations across Binance, Bybit, and OKX during that period, with Binance alone accounting for $24.69 million.
What happened to XRP open interest on Binance by October 11?
Binance’s XRPUSDT open interest rose 1.3% by October 11, adding 3.72 million XRP — but it remained 7.4% below the level seen on October 8 before the liquidation event.
