XRP Open Interest Drops 32% as Uniswap and NEAR Rise
XRP (XRP)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
thecurrencyanalytics.com reports that XRP open interest on Binance fell 32% from $323 million to $219 million between August 22 and September 17. This decline coincided with an 11% price slide and a sharp drop in estimated cumulative volume delta on centralized exchanges from -111 million to -2.1 billion dollars. The data indicates traders are closing derivative positions rather than adding new ones, signaling sustained selling pressure.
While XRP weakened, the broader crypto market cap rose 2.2% to $2.66 trillion on September 18. Uniswap gained up to 31% and NEAR jumped up to 30% as Bitcoin’s dominance fell below 59%. Capital rotation has become more fragmented, with altcoin capitalization compressing from $1.49 trillion to $543 billion between October 2025 and June 2026.
Real-world assets saw on-chain assets under management grow from $4 billion to over $34 billion since January 2025. Perpetuals tied to these assets now carry open interest exceeding $15.9 billion. Prediction market volume reached $120.23 billion since the start of the year. Hyperliquid reported $429 million in revenues since January, highlighting a shift toward tracking actual platform cash flow.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for XRP, measured when this story was written up on 18 September 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
XRP is trading at $1.30 with a 24-hour buy ratio of 49.2%, indicating a near-even split between buyers and sellers. The 1-hour buy ratio is lower at 45.8%, suggesting that immediate buying pressure is fading compared to the broader daily trend. Volume delta reflects this imbalance, with -$1,345,010 in the last hour versus -$768,432 over four hours. Over 24 hours, the volume delta sits at -$2,557,273, and the Cumulative Volume Delta closed at -$7,284,314. This negative delta means that more volume occurred at the ask price, showing that sellers are actively pushing the price down. Despite this, net buying occurred for only 10 of the last 24 hours.
The latest daily buy ratio of 50.6% sits at the 83rd percentile of the last 322 days, against a median of 48.5% - stronger buying than most days.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for XRP, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
Over the preceding week, the average buy ratio was 48.8%, making today’s 24-hour reading of 49.2% only 0.4 points higher than the weekly norm. However, trading volume is currently at 0.70x the weekly average, indicating significantly less activity than usual. The coin has dropped 2.9% over eight days, with a total volume delta of -$16,224,929 for that period. This suggests that while the daily balance is typical, the lack of volume and recent price decline make it an unusually quiet and weak day for XRP.