XRP Spot Volume Declines by $1.94B Amid Rise in Futures Trading

$XRP spot trading activity has collapsed in recent times despite the recent recovery above $1.40, showing reduced interest among spot traders.

However, while the spot market is seeing a decline in volume, futures trading remains strong, and this has led to questions about how much of $XRP’s recovery comes from demand in the spot market and how much is influenced by speculative trading.

Specifically, between Aug. 26 and Oct. 11, $XRP’s combined spot trading volume across centralized exchanges dropped by $1.943 billion, falling from $2.597 billion to $653.8 million.

For context, these figures represent the seven-day average spot exchange volume, which measures the average daily trading volume over the previous seven days.

Importantly, the indicator covers a full week, which helps to reduce the effect of sudden increases or decreases in daily activity and gives a better idea of the overall trend in trader participation.

$XRP Spot Volume Falls Across Major Exchanges

The decline affected Binance and other centralized exchanges, although the drop outside Binance was much larger.

On Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, $XRP’s spot trading volume fell from $597 million on Aug. 26 to $168 million on Oct. 11. This represented a decline of $429 million during the period.

Other centralized exchanges recorded an even steeper decline. Combined, their $XRP spot trading volume fell from $2 billion to $485.8 million, a loss of $1.514 billion.

In absolute terms, the decline outside Binance was 3.53 times larger than Binance’s $429 million reduction. This confirms that the drop in spot activity was not limited to one exchange but extended across the market.

$XRP Futures Trading Remains Strong

While spot trading volume declined, activity in $XRP’s futures market remained high. In September, futures trading volume across Binance, Bybit, and OKX reached a combined $56.18 billion, the highest level in six months. Binance accounted for $32.36 billion of the total September futures volume.

More specifically, data from the Binance Spot-to-Futures Volume Ratio confirms the recent divergence between spot activity and futures trading. Notably, the indicator compares $XRP’s spot trading volume with its futures volume on Binance.

On Sept. 26, the ratio stood at 31%, meaning spot trading accounted for nearly one-third of Binance’s $XRP trading volume under this measure. By Oct. 11, it had fallen to 12.7%, as spot trading lost a substantial share of market activity.

The difference is larger when comparing the two markets directly. By Oct. 11, $XRP futures trading volume on Binance was approximately 7.9x its spot volume. On Sept. 26, futures volume was around 3.2x spot volume.

$XRP’s Spot-to-Futures Ratio Nears a Historical Low

The Oct. 11 ratio of 12.7% is also approaching a significant historical low. On Aug. 16, the indicator fell to 11%, when $XRP traded below $0.99. At that time, spot trading made up a smaller share of Binance’s $XRP market activity compared with futures.

$XRP now trades near $1.40, considerably above its price below $0.99 in August. However, the gap between spot and futures activity remains almost as wide as it was during that earlier period.