Traders have opened $2.16 billion in fresh long positions on XRP even as the token slides, a bet that looks increasingly exposed after a monthly decline of more than 6%. The position build-up comes as XRP struggles to hold the $1.00 support level, with a break lower risking a slide toward $0.98 and beyond.
The scale of the wager stands out against XRP's recent capital-markets performance. Spot XRP ETFs have pulled in just $3 million in fresh inflows so far in August, a fraction of the more than $2 billion that has flowed into Ethereum ETFs over the same stretch. That gap suggests institutional allocators are rotating toward Ethereum while leveraged traders keep doubling down on XRP through derivatives instead.
A Leveraged Bet Against a Weak Tape
The mismatch between aggressive long positioning and soft spot demand is what makes the setup risky. When leveraged bets accumulate faster than genuine buying pressure, the resulting position becomes vulnerable to a cascade of forced liquidations if price fails to cooperate — a dynamic that has repeatedly punished over-leveraged longs in XRP's derivatives market over the past year. A daily close below $1.00 would be the clearest signal that this latest round of longs is underwater.
Related: BNB Stalls Below $620 as Whales Move $12M, Bulls Eye $666
RLUSD Offers a Counterweight
The one bright spot in Ripple's ecosystem is RLUSD, the company's dollar-pegged stablecoin. Its circulating supply expanded by roughly $132 million over the past seven days, making it the fastest-growing major asset in Ripple's orbit during that window. DefiLlama's tracker shows RLUSD's market capitalization has climbed past $1.6 billion this year, with the token now accounting for the bulk of stablecoin liquidity on the XRP Ledger.
That growth matters for XRP bulls because RLUSD adoption feeds directly into Ripple's payments and liquidity infrastructure, the same rails XRP itself is meant to serve. If RLUSD's momentum continues to build, some traders argue it could eventually translate into firmer demand for XRP as a bridge asset — though for now, that thesis remains a longer-term argument rather than something showing up in the token's price action.
What Would Change the Setup
For the $2.16 billion in longs to be vindicated, XRP would need to reclaim $1.00 convincingly and build toward the $1.04–$1.08 zone that has capped recent rallies. Until that happens, the combination of weak spot demand, thin ETF inflows and stacked leverage leaves the trade looking more like a wager on a reversal than a position backed by clear momentum.
