XRP Defies Market Slump with 10% Surge—Open Interest Rockets Past $5B
While the broader crypto market stumbles, XRP just pulled off a gravity-defying act—spiking 10% as traders pile into derivatives. Open interest cracks the $5B ceiling, signaling either rampant speculation or that rare moment when the ’banker coin’ actually earns its keep.
Funny how these ’institutional darling’ narratives only resurface when retail FOMO kicks in. The SEC lawsuit dust hasn’t even settled, but hey—when liquidity’s sloshing around, even the most battered tokens get their day in the sun.
XRP’s open interest rises
XRP’s momentum comes amid growing confidence in its legal and institutional outlook, with the futures market showing a substantial uptick in speculative activity.
According to Coinglass data, open interest in XRP futures climbed to nearly $8 billion at the start of 2025. This represented a 300% increase from levels before Donald Trump’s election victory in November 2024.
Open interest measures the total number of active futures contracts and is often considered a proxy for market conviction. When this metric rises, it usually signals growing trader confidence.
Although the figure dipped to $3.6 billion during the broader market pullback in March and April, it has since rebounded to $5.4 billion as of press time. This signals renewed trader interest amid the current crypto rally.
In XRP’s case, this surge is backed by a more than 100% increase in trading volume, which now exceeds $15.28 billion.
Why is XRP rising?
Meanwhile, several key developments are driving crypto traders’ current conviction in XRP.
Last week, Ripple reached a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), ending a multi-year legal dispute.
Under the deal, Ripple will pay $50 million to the SEC, while the remaining $75 million—previously held in escrow—will return to the company. The agreement also vacates a previous injunction.
SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw recently criticized the resolution, but it is, nonetheless, widely seen as a win for Ripple and a boost for its regulatory clarity.
Beyond legal relief, XRP is attracting significant institutional attention and is also being adopted as a treasury asset by firms like Wellgistics Health, a pharmaceutical supply chain and technology firm.
Additionally, speculation around a potential XRP-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) has grown over the past months, with data from Polymarket showing a 78% chance of approval for an XRP ETF this year.
