XRP's recent market situation feels like a rollercoaster — it closed at $3.1879 on August 10, down 3.8% in 24 hours. A few days ago, the SEC's withdrawal of the lawsuit caused it to bounce briefly, but then it dropped again. Now, on the price chart, the bullish and bearish signals are tangled together, and traders are sweating.
However, the institutions have not been idle. Remittix has thrown out a $18.5 million 'bounty' to completely transform the payment system, clearly intending to leverage XRP for some major moves. Such news mixed in the market makes it even harder to predict the next direction.
The futures market is heating up, and the bulls are in a strong mood.
If we talk about the hottest cryptocurrency futures recently, XRP is definitely one of them.
In just 24 hours, the trading volume in futures skyrocketed by 207.74%, reaching $12.4 billion, leaving Solana's $9.6 billion behind. The open contracts also rose by 15.02%, reaching $5.9 billion — this figure is higher than popular coins like Dogecoin, Ethereum, and Solana, definitely a 'futures star'.
More crucially, the financing rate has turned positive. This means that buyers might be 'paying' the shorts just to stabilize their long positions — in simple terms, there are so many bullish people willing to spend money to hold their positions, fearing they might miss out on the opportunity.
As a result, XRP became the third on the 24-hour liquidation leaderboard (excluding stablecoins). Many shorts were liquidated, but what’s more concerning is: there are currently $150 million of high-leverage short positions hanging in the $3.27-$3.37 range. If the price pushes up a little more, these short positions will be forcibly liquidated, possibly triggering a 'short squeeze' that forces XRP towards $3.5.
Although the open interest has recently decreased a bit, indicating that people are more willing to buy bullishly, compared to the potential selling orders, this strength seems not strong enough. The tug-of-war between bulls and bears is becoming increasingly tense.
With $3.28 billion of XRP unlocking, can the market hold up?
Just as the bulls were getting ready, a cold shower was thrown down — on August 9, $3.28 billion worth of XRP was released from custody accounts.
Whale Alert discovered that these coins were split into three transactions: $1.64 billion, $328 million, and $1.32 billion, all transferred to unknown wallets. With so many coins suddenly flowing into the market, it’s like pouring a lot of water into a pool, the circulation increases dramatically, and the selling pressure will definitely not be small.
Old players know that in the past, every major unlock usually hammered down the XRP price. Especially if the buying power can't handle this wave of supply, the drop could be even harsher. Now, this $3.28 billion volume is neither small nor large, but enough to scare the market for a moment.
Traders are all waiting: is it a breakout or a crash?
The current situation is quite delicate: the futures market is as hot as fire, and the selling pressure from the unlocks feels like a heavy stone weighing down. Although there are slightly more bullish indicators, no one dares to make guarantees.
Many traders are holding back — either waiting for the price to clearly break above $3.5 to confirm the bullish trend; or waiting for a break below key support to see the bearish trend. Before that, no one wants to place heavy bets easily.
After all, in this game of chess, both bulls and bears have reasons to shout 'win'. It just depends on whether the frenzy of futures overwhelms the pressure from the unlocks, or whether the $3.28 billion of selling will extinguish the bulls' momentum.
Disclaimer: The content of this article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice. Investors should rationally view cryptocurrency investments based on their own risk tolerance and investment goals, and should not blindly follow trends.
