Futures exposure rebuilds after long liquidations
XRP traded near $1.40 on October 11 after heavy forced selling in futures markets. XRPL.to recorded $40.70 million in long liquidations across Binance, Bybit and OKX during October 7 and 8.
Binance accounted for $24.69 million of the long closures. Bybit followed with $11.65 million, and OKX with $4.36 million. The figures are notional, not realized cash losses. XRPL.to notes its sample is a floor and can have gaps.
By October 11, futures exposure was starting to return. Binance and Bybit still had less outstanding XRP futures exposure at midnight on October 11 than on October 8, but both added positions during the prior day.
Open interest fell in XRP terms
Open interest measured in XRP units gives the clearer picture. Between 00:00 UTC on October 8 and October 9, Binance XRPUSDT open interest fell from 321.40 million to 295.47 million XRP, an 8.1% decline. Bybit fell from 211.92 million to 197.90 million XRP, down 6.6%.
The dollar value of open interest also dropped. Binance’s open-interest value fell from $456.53 million to $407.60 million over the same interval, a 10.7% decline. That was larger than the quantity decline because the implied value per XRP also fell.
By October 11 midnight, the trend had shifted. Binance added 3.72 million XRP of exposure from the previous midnight, up 1.3%. Bybit added 6.46 million XRP, up 3.3%. Both readings stayed below October 8 levels. OKX is excluded from this matched comparison because its daily open-interest history uses 16:00 UTC observations.
Funding turns positive as spot activity fades
Funding rates offer another signal. For the completed October 9 UTC day, settled funding was about minus 0.0173% on Binance, minus 0.0163% on Bybit and minus 0.0101% on OKX. On October 10, Binance and Bybit turned positive, while OKX stayed slightly negative.
Quotes collected by XRPL.to around 12:11:52 UTC on October 11 were positive on all three venues. Positive funding alongside rebuilding open interest means longs face a quoted carrying cost.
Spot activity was less supportive. Binance daily XRP/USDT turnover fell from 252.45 million USDT on October 8 to 120.39 million on October 9 and 54.12 million on October 10, a 78.6% drop over two days. The daily close still rose 1.6%, from 1.3805 to 1.4024 USDT.
Buyer-initiated trades were 51.8% of Binance spot XRP volume on October 9, then 43.1% on October 10. Those shares show which side initiated trades, not net purchases.
What the rebuild means for holders
Returning futures exposure is exposure to XRP’s price. It is not proof that the same amount of native XRP was bought. The main contracts are USDT-margined, so they track price exposure without requiring native XRP.
For spot holders, the signal is conditional. More outstanding futures positions mean more positions that depend on sufficient margin. Daily open-interest figures cannot show how close those positions are to maintenance thresholds. The next check is whether XRP-unit exposure keeps growing with sustained spot activity and whether positive funding persists in settled payments.
