XRP, the native coin of the Ripple blockchain, is showing a notable divergence between spot and derivatives activity. To recall, the 6th-largest cryptocurrency by reported market cap is down 40.1 percent on a year-to-date (YTD) basis.
XRP’s difference between spot and derivatives activity
According to data received on Thursday, XRP’s buying pressure is showing signs of strength across spot markets. In stark contrast, the digital asset’s perpetual futures market is reflective of aggressive sell-side positioning.
As of Thursday, all centralized exchange (CEX) estimated spot cumulative volume delta (CVD) has surged to roughly $388.6 million – the highest figure since June 1. This shows a significant increase in net aggressive buying across centralized spot exchanges.
For the uninitiated, CVD measures the cumulative difference between aggressive buy orders executed at the ask price and aggressive sell orders executed at the bid price over time. A rising CVD indicates buyers are dominating market activity, while a falling CVD suggests sellers are exerting greater pressure.
At the same time, Binance perpetual CVD remained deep in the negative territory, around -$547.4 million. For comparison, its strongest reading during May was approximately -$5 million, highlighting how substantially derivatives taker activity has shifted toward the sell side.
When combined with open interest, the divergence between spot and perpetual futures market becomes all the more important. XRP open interest on Binance increased from roughly $198 million on July 8, to $215.7 million on Thursday, a rise of nearly 9 percent.
To explain, rising open interest alongside strongly negative perpetual CVD is consistent with fresh leveraged sell-side exposure being added, rather than the movement being explained solely by the closure of existing long positions.
That said, open interest, alone, cannot identify the direction of every newly opened position.
Meanwhile, spot trading increased across exchanges – as on Tuesday, Coinbase recorded $157 million in spot trading volume. In comparison, Binance recorded a trading volume of $111 million.
XRP whales are buying
The pessimistic state of affairs in the futures market is not discouraging whales from accumulating XRP at its perceived discounted price. On Tuesday, exchange data from Binance showed that XRP whale inflows have fallen to lowest level since January 2025.
Selling pressure on XRP appears to be receding too, as funding rates start to enter neutral territory. To conclude, it’s not surprising to see whales scoop up XRP at prevailing market prices, especially where there’s anticipation of a major rally in the coming weeks.
