XRP Futures Market Reorganizes as Whales Keep Accumulating Despite Mixed Signals

Summary:
The XRP futures market has experienced significant liquidations for long traders recently, while large holders, or whales, have been steadily increasing their positions. Despite these contrasting trends, the overall market environment remains uncertain.

Key Takeaways:

Recent weeks have seen long traders in the XRP futures market face wipeouts totaling over $2.5 million.
Whale activity has been on the rise, averaging $9 million in daily XRP inflows since late February.
Despite significant whale accumulation, XRP's price has declined by 13.63% over the last ten days.
The open interest on Binance increased by nearly 15%, indicating new positions are being added even amidst negative market conditions.
The Sharpe Ratio, a measure of risk-adjusted returns, turned slightly positive but indicates modest returns with ongoing volatility.

XRP

Whale Accumulation Reaches Record Levels

Large holders of XRP have been consistently accumulating the cryptocurrency since late February. Data from CryptoQuant shows that whale inflows have reached an average of $9 million per day based on a 30-day moving average. This buying spree has continued uninterrupted since February 27 and is the longest accumulation run since a similar period from April to July last year. That earlier stretch culminated in XRP hitting an all-time high of $3.65 in mid-July 2025.

XRP Price Chart XRP is currently trading at $1.35. Chart: TradingView

In contrast, the price of XRP has been experiencing a downturn, dropping by 13.63% over the past ten days as it fell from a previously bullish pattern that traders were monitoring closely. CryptoQuant analysts suggest that XRP might test the support level at $1.27, with a potential slide towards the yearly low of $1.11 if selling pressure persists.

Binance's open interest surged close to 15% in the 24 hours ending March 26, marking its highest increase in a single day since early March. This surge indicates that traders are taking positions despite the market's tendency to punish long bets.

Slight Improvement in Risk-Adjusted Returns

A positive development for XRP is its Sharpe Ratio, which measures the returns in relation to the level of risk taken. After remaining mostly around zero for several months from October 2024 to February 2025, the Sharpe Ratio ticked up to 0.0267 as of March 26.

Analyst Arab Chain, commenting for CryptoQuant, described this movement as a sign of a gradual rebalancing. However, a drop back into negative territory would signal renewed volatility.

The 30-day average daily return of 0.00063 reflects this shift, albeit modestly. Data indicates that while gains remain small, volatility has stabilized, indicating a slight positive change compared to a month ago.

Overall, there is a noticeable tension in the current setup for XRP, with whales accumulating assets while retail futures traders face liquidation. The improvement in the Sharpe Ratio, though slight, shows that conditions are not as dire as before, but the mixed signals from various indicators make the market direction unclear.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView.