XRP Falls to $1.02 as Investors Realize Losses at Fastest Pace

XRP fell to $1.02 on Friday, its weakest level since February, as trading activity in futures and leveraged positions declined and investors moved tokens at a loss.

The drop accelerated after XRP touched about $1.07 on Wednesday, triggering roughly $9 million in long liquidations. Binance accounted for about $4.5 million of those closed positions. Long liquidations occur when falling prices force exchanges to close leveraged bullish bets, adding sell orders into the market.

Derivatives activity contracted. Open interest for XRP on Binance fell to about $205 million, the lowest since March 22, while open interest on Bybit declined to roughly $185 million, near levels last seen on June 6. Across tracked venues, total XRP open interest stood near $2.34 billion.

Futures turnover dropped to around $2.84 billion from more than $30 billion in the comparable period last year, a decline of over 90 percent that reflects a sharp fall in speculative trading.

On-chain measures showed a rise in realized losses. XRP’s 90-day moving average profit-to-loss ratio declined to 0.33, the weakest reading since August 2022. A ratio of 0.33 indicates that recorded losses were roughly three times recorded profits over the 90-day period, with a larger share of on-chain transfers occurring below holders’ acquisition prices.

Risk-adjusted indicators were negative. The 30-day Sharpe ratio for XRP on Binance was about -0.29 and the Sharpe Z-score near -1.57. Seven-day Sharpe momentum was roughly -0.09. These figures compare returns with volatility and show recent risk-adjusted returns below historical norms.

One derivatives metric showed a more neutral balance: the perpetual-to-spot volume imbalance for XRP on Binance was close to 0.51 with a 30-day Z-score near 0.17, indicating perpetual futures made up a large share of activity while the gap with spot volumes sat near average for the past month.

Broader market weakness accompanied XRP’s decline. Bitcoin fell toward about $58,100 before recovering near $60,000, and Ethereum traded around $1,550. The total crypto market value dipped below $2 trillion. Market breadth weakened: of 85 non-stablecoin tokens tracked, 87 percent declined in June, with an average loss of 8.6 percent and a median loss of 12.3 percent. Two of the top 10 non-stablecoin assets finished the quarter with gains.

Leveraged exposure on major exchanges had fallen and many holders were realizing losses after the recent price moves. XRP traded near $1.02 following Friday’s decline.