XRP Faces $320M Derivatives Wall as Bears Eye $2.50 Rejection

Ripple (XRP) emerged as one of the weakest performers on Wednesday, even as Bitcoin's record-breaking rally lifted top altcoins.

Despite Bitcoin's record-breaking rally that pushed top altcoins higher, one coin is lagging: Ripple (XRP).

While Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), and Binance Coin (BNB) managed to post over 3% gains as they broke past the key resistance levels at $0.73, $165, and $645, respectively, XRP encountered difficulties. It rose by 1.5% but stalled below the $2.40 mark.

The daily trading volume for XRP clocked in at $2.7 billion—a decrease of nearly 80% from its May 13 peak of $11 billion. This signals that investor interest is waning following U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres's decision to uphold Ripple's $125 million fine.

This legal uncertainty might explain why, despite Bitcoin's surge to new all-time highs above $109,500, which usually lifts altcoins, XRP generated nearly half the usual returns.

At the start of the week, ADA, SOL, and BNB managed to generate triple-digit gains over the last seven days. They also clocked in gains of over 3% as they broke past the key technical levels.

However, XRP’s performance was sluggish. It slid below the $2.40 resistance, where it faced a large technical barrier and a technical setback after encountering strong selling pressure at $2.50.

This weakness could be linked to a bearish derivatives landscape. According to the latest data, there was a massive technical setback at $2.50.

At this price point, traders had placed a substantial amount of short interest—a total of $319.91 million in short leverage compared to $230 million in long positions.

Out of this, $165 million was concentrated at the $2.50 level, which posed a technical and psychological barrier.

This technical factor emerged as traders were betting heavily on XRP's failure to break $2.50.

Moreover, the overall demand for XRP appeared to be waning as traders capitalized on the strong performance of Layer-1s like Solana, Cardano, and others.

These Layer-1s faced less legal risk than XRP, which was struggling to break through the $2.40-$2.50 price range despite attempting to do so throughout the day.

Unless there was a decisive shift in sentiment or capital flows from macro trends, XRP might continue to lag behind.