XRP Surged 40% but Futures Positions Contracted: CME’s Share Rose to 17%

While XRP rose approximately 40%, total futures open interest shrank, but CME’s share in XRP increased from 10% to 17%.

Between August 17-31, the XRP price rose from approximately $0.99 to $1.38. During the same period, total futures open interest on exchanges contracted instead of expanding. The most prominent exception to this divergent movement was CME, which is heavily used by professional investors.

According to data cited by CoinDesk from CoinGlass, total open interest in XRP fell from 2.77 billion tokens to 2.34 billion tokens. This total, representing outstanding futures contracts, decreased by approximately 16% in two weeks.

CME’s share in XRP futures rose

Open interest on CME, meanwhile, rose from 284 million XRP to 387 million XRP during the same period. This approximately 36% increase pushed the platform’s share of total XRP futures open interest from 10% to 17%.

Positions in markets outside of CME decreased by approximately 533 million XRP, or 21%. Thus, while XRP rose, leveraged trading generally shrank, with a larger portion of positions consolidating in a regulated market. This situation provides a limited indicator of professional investor interest but does not signify a definitive institutional inflow on its own.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data also showed that investor groups were positioned in different directions. According to data through August 25, leveraged funds held 892 long positions against 3,206 short positions. The group’s net short position rose to approximately 116 million XRP.

In contrast, dealers added approximately 60 million XRP in net long positions, while asset managers added 28 million XRP. Since short positions held by leveraged funds may include trades opened to hedge assets elsewhere, this data cannot be interpreted directly as a bet on an XRP price decline.