Data shows the XRP Open Interest has witnessed a notable surge alongside the asset’s price drop, a sign that investors have been putting up fresh bets.

As pointed out by CryptoQuant community analyst Maartunn in an X post, the XRP Open Interest has seen a jump recently. This indicator measures the total amount of positions related to the asset that are currently open on all centralized derivatives exchanges.

When the value of the metric rises, it means investors are opening up fresh positions on the market. Generally, new positions come with an overall increase in the leverage for the sector, so the asset could end up becoming more volatile following a jump in the indicator

On the other hand, the Open Interest witnessing a decline implies traders are either closing up positions of their own volition or getting forcibly liquidated by their platform. In either case, the reduced leverage can make the market more stable.

Now, here is the chart shared by Maartunn that shows the trend in the XRP Open Interest over the last few days:

As displayed in the above graph, the XRP Open Interest has gone up during the past day. This surge in the indicator has come alongside a drawdown in the cryptocurrency’s spot price. Thus, it would appear that traders have been trying to guess where the coin will move after this decline.

As mentioned earlier, an increase in the metric can make the asset behave in a volatile manner. This is due to the fact that mass liquidation events are more likely to occur the more overleveraged the market is. Where the cryptocurrency heads from here could become the trigger for such an event. In the case of a further drawdown, longs could get caught up in liquidations, acting as fuel for an extended decline.

XRP isn’t the only asset that has seen a jump in the Open Interest recently. As CryptoQuant has highlighted in an X post, Bitcoin has also observed a positive change in the metric.

The latest bearish price action in the sector has meant that liquidations have already started piling up on exchanges, with longs being the most heavily affected, according to data from CoinGlass.

As displayed in the table, liquidations in the sector have totaled at $450 million, with about $401 million coming from the bullish positions.

XRP has plunged to the $1.33 level following the bearish action.

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