XRP Hovers at $1.05 as Open Interest Climbs Despite Price Decline—Could a Squeeze Be Near?

Key Takeaways

• XRP currently changes hands at $1.05, experiencing an 8% decline over the last seven days and a 43% drop year-to-date in 2026
• Open interest climbed 1.13% to reach $2.37 billion despite downward price movement, while funding rates shifted into negative territory
• Ripple’s latest report reveals tokenised real-world assets on XRP Ledger surged 2,260%, expanding from $5M to $118M
• Crypto analyst Ali Martinez identified $1.06 as crucial support, warning that failure could trigger drops to $0.80, $0.62, or $0.51
• XRP continues trading beneath both 100-day and 200-day moving averages, facing initial resistance at $1.10

XRP is currently valued at approximately $1.05 following a 2.45% uptick during the last 24-hour period. However, this minor recovery doesn’t offset the broader downward trend, with the digital asset losing 8% across the previous week and plummeting 43% since the beginning of January 2026.

The cryptocurrency reached its peak at $3.65 during July 2025. Today’s valuation represents approximately a 71% decline from that all-time high.

The asset has successfully maintained its position above the psychologically important $1.00 threshold, which market observers identify as a critical support zone. Current daily trading activity hovers around $2.47 billion.

Leveraged Positions Expand as Prices Contract

XRP’s open interest experienced a 1.13% increase over the past 24 hours, now standing at $2.37 billion. This metric indicates market participants continue establishing new leveraged contracts despite the asset’s downward trajectory.

Funding rates have transitioned into negative territory. Within perpetual futures trading, this development signals that short position holders are compensating long position holders to maintain their contracts — suggesting bearish sentiment has gained control.

Options open interest contracted by 67% to $21.66 million, whereas options trading volume expanded 16% to reach $5.4 million.

Cryptocurrency analyst Ali Martinez highlighted that XRP is currently challenging a significant volume cluster at $1.06. Blockchain data derived from the UTXO Realized Price Distribution reveals that more than 830 million XRP tokens were exchanged at this price point, establishing it as a heavily monitored support threshold. Martinez identified subsequent critical support zones should this level fail to hold: $0.80 where 923 million XRP transacted, $0.62 hosting 1.16 billion XRP, and $0.51 containing 1.06 billion XRP.

Several market commentators have suggested a potential decline to $0.95 before any meaningful recovery materializes. Martinez has also referenced an extreme downside scenario approaching $0.15, a price level not witnessed since 2017, should XRP replicate its historical maximum drawdown of 96%.

Ripple Reveals 2,260% Expansion in Tokenised Asset Ecosystem

Regarding fundamental developments, Ripple released analysis demonstrating that tokenised real-world assets operating on the XRP Ledger expanded from approximately $5 million at 2025’s outset to surpass $118 million. This represents an extraordinary increase of roughly 2,260%.

These tokenised holdings encompass digital representations of US Treasury securities, various commodities, and real estate properties. Ripple compiled this assessment in collaboration with Token Relations.

XRP continues trading below both its 100-day and 200-day moving averages, with these technical indicators functioning as overhead resistance barriers. The Relative Strength Index approaches oversold conditions. The $1.10 price point represents the initial significant resistance zone above current trading levels.

Analyzing the XRP/BTC trading pair, the token is testing support around 1,700 satoshis. Market technicians identify 1,500 satoshis as the subsequent downside target, with resistance anticipated between 1,850 and 2,000 satoshis during any potential rebound scenario.

The post XRP Hovers at $1.05 as Open Interest Climbs Despite Price Decline—Could a Squeeze Be Near? appeared first on Blockonomi.