A notable imbalance has emerged in the XRP futures market. The ongoing six-month downtrend, which has dragged the price down from its $3.50 peak, accelerated at the start of June. In this period alone, XRP registered an 8.19 percent pullback, prompting a wave of mass closures among long positions.
Break below $1.25 triggers mass liquidations
The breach of the psychologically important $1.25 threshold led to a severe squeeze on long positions. According to CoinGlass data, exchange risk management algorithms liquidated $18.57 million in long positions during this downturn. Conversely, losses on short positions for the same period remained modest at just $1.15 million.
CoinGlass figures show that XRP long position liquidations were roughly 16 times higher than shorts, revealing a sharp short-term market imbalance.
The discrepancy in liquidations reached an extraordinary 1,614 percent, reflecting a pronounced short-term divergence in the market. As leveraged traders were forced to close out positions via stop-losses, institutional buyers reportedly sought to capitalize on the price drop in spot markets as a buying opportunity.
Automated trades accelerated XRP’s slide
Losing the $1.25 support shifted market dynamics squarely into the hands of automatic trading systems. Waves of forced closures in leveraged positions, compounded by sale orders from the market, caused the XRP price to slide swiftly to $1.2264.
This price action pushed XRP into technically weaker territory. Should broad selling pressure persist, analysts suggest a possible test of the lower Bollinger Band, currently marked at $0.9521.
Glossary: The Bollinger Band is a technical analysis tool that tracks price volatility. The lower band can indicate increased selling pressure and prices nearing their historical volatility limit.
Spot ETF inflows continued despite futures pressure
While retail traders were forced out of their long futures positions, U.S.-listed spot XRP ETFs absorbed $4.13 million in net inflows on the same day. These ETFs provide direct exposure to XRP price movements and are available to institutional and traditional investors.
This inflow stands out, especially compared to outflows from some other crypto assets. For instance, during the same period, over $519 million exited Bitcoin ETFs. The strength of inflows into XRP ETFs suggests that institutional players may be treating the current retreat as a strategic accumulation phase.
Key focus shifts to $1.20 area
As excess leverage was washed out of the market, the total value of XRP ETFs remained above $1.4 billion. This trend signals a shift from speculative short-term trading toward more position-based, strategic investment.
If the pace of fund inflows continues, the support band formed between $1.20 and $1.22 could establish a local bottom for XRP. Under this scenario, the price is anticipated to stabilize before making an attempt to return to the $1.38 level.
However, if overall market weakness prevails, the psychological threshold around $1 could become relevant again for XRP, potentially leading to a fresh test of that support zone.
