Short position accumulation drives XRP open interest recovery over the past week

XRP open interest—the value of outstanding derivative contracts—rose from $1 billion to about $1.3 billion over the past week, a 30% recovery, as bearish derivatives traders and bullish whale buyers took opposing positions. XRP traded near $1.32. By Nov. 5, Binance carried $542.7 million in XRP open interest, up about 2.4% in a day, and short positions, or bets on a price decline, grew faster than longs as traders anticipated a break below $1.30; Bybit also showed growth. Whales withdrew about 50 million XRP from Binance as of Nov. 1, while 54 million left Gate and Upbit and 13.24 million exited centralized exchanges as of Nov. 5, with roughly 68% of supply held in whale wallets.