XRP’s leverage bill comes due

XRP derivatives traders lost more than $610 million in forced long liquidations in a single day on Oct. 11, the largest one-day liquidation total in the token’s tracked history, according to DigitalToday, citing blockchain outlet Decrypto. The flush hit positions across Binance, OKX and Bybit as a price pullback caught a market stacked with one-sided bullish bets.

The scale of the unwind matters because it shows how much leverage built up quietly during XRP’s rebound. Open interest had more than doubled off its summer low before the liquidation, and traders are already rebuilding positions days later, even though price has not recovered the ground it lost.

Key Takeaways

  • XRP long liquidations hit a record $610 million in a single day on Oct. 11 across Binance, OKX and Bybit, according to DigitalToday.
  • XRP derivatives open interest rose from roughly $360 million in mid-August to around $620 million as the token rallied toward the $1.55 to $1.60 zone in September and early October.
  • XRP traded around $1.37 three days after the flush, up 0.6% in 24 hours, according to COINOTAG, with Investing.com putting it at $1.345 on Oct. 13, down 4.5% over 24 hours and 12.5% over seven days.
  • Binance’s notional open interest fell to $467 million from its recent peak but rose 2.48% in the 24 hours after the liquidation, per DigitalToday, as some traders re-entered long positions.
  • XRP ETFs saw $11.31 million in net inflows in the week ending Oct. 9, according to SoSoValue data cited by DigitalToday.

How the leverage built up

XRP’s open interest nearly doubled on the way up. DigitalToday reports the figure sat around $360 million in mid-August, when price was weak, then climbed to about $620 million as XRP extended a rebound through September and into early October that pushed it toward the $1.55 to $1.60 range. Binance’s 30-day average open interest reached $511 million, the highest level in eight months, the outlet said.

Rising open interest on its own is not a warning sign; it reflects more capital entering the futures market. The risk sits in positioning becoming one-sided. As more traders bet on continued gains with leverage, a reversal has more margin calls to trigger at once. That is what happened on Oct. 11: XRP turned lower, long positions that could not meet margin requirements were force-closed, and the resulting sell orders added to the decline, a cycle DigitalToday described as liquidations feeding further liquidations.

TheCryptoBasic framed the episode in similar terms in an Oct. 13 piece: XRP rode leverage up to $1.60 before losing the $610 million in a single session, a headline that lines up with DigitalToday’s account of the rebound-then-flush sequence.

Where price sits now, and why accounts differ slightly

Price snapshots from the days after the liquidation vary by outlet and timestamp, though the direction is consistent: XRP has stabilized but not reclaimed its early-October highs. DigitalToday puts XRP around $1.37 after the flush. COINOTAG’s live reading three days after the event showed $1.3732, up 0.6% over 24 hours and “drifting sideways.” Investing.com’s figure for Tuesday, Oct. 13, was lower, at $1.345, down 4.5% over 24 hours and 12.5% over the week, with a 24-hour range of $1.31 to $1.42; Investing.com also noted the $1.31 low printed overnight as South Korea’s KOSPI index opened down 5.46%, coinciding with a broader flush of leveraged crypto positions.

Investing.com’s longer timeline shows the slide was gradual before the record liquidation: XRP at $1.56 on Sept. 25 after a 16.64% weekly gain, $1.49 on Oct. 1 (the day Ripple released 1 billion XRP from escrow), $1.4445 on Oct. 7, and $1.39 on Oct. 11. From the $1.55 to $1.60 zone, XRP had already lost 13% to 16% before the liquidation cascade. Investing.com also noted XRP’s 50-day and 200-day moving averages had converged to within half a cent of each other, at $1.39 to $1.40, calling it a directionless market at a decision point, and that a daily close above $1.40 would be needed to reverse the slide.

Supporting context from the same window: Evernorth Holdings, an XRP treasury company backed by Ripple, Kraken, Pantera Capital, SBI Group, Arrington Capital and GSR, listed on Nasdaq under the ticker XRPN on Oct. 12, bringing 473 million XRP and $300 million in gross cash proceeds onto a public balance sheet, per Investing.com. The debut, delayed from an originally planned Oct. 8 start, was followed by selling rather than buying, with XRP down 4.9% around the listing, which Investing.com characterized as a sell-the-news reaction after the rally priced in anticipation of the debut.

Positioning is already leaning long again

DigitalToday reports Binance’s notional open interest fell to $467 million from its recent peak but then rose 2.48% in the 24 hours it measured, evidence that traders are rebuilding long exposure even after the record wipeout. Funding rates on perpetual futures remained positive, keeping longs dominant, the outlet said, while Investing.com separately found traders leaning long by a two-to-one ratio, leaving room for another liquidation flush if price falls again.

Spot-market data offered a partial counterpoint. SoSoValue figures cited by DigitalToday showed XRP ETFs took in $11.31 million in net inflows in the week ending Oct. 9, which the outlet distinguished from leveraged futures activity as a potential signal of spot demand, while cautioning that a single week of inflows isn’t enough to confirm a buying trend.

What to Watch

DigitalToday frames the next phase around two variables: whether leveraged long positions build up again before spot demand can support them, and whether funding rates and open interest keep climbing without a matching price recovery. Investing.com puts specific levels on that question, flagging $1.31 as the recent low and a daily close above $1.40 as the threshold needed to break the current directionless range.

Sources