XRP fell as low as $0.99 during the August 12 session, slipping below $1 for the first time since November 2024. The token had first crossed $1 on November 16, 2024, and went on to reach a peak of $3.42 in July 2025 before the broader cryptocurrency market downturn erased much of that advance. As of August 17, XRP sits right on the $1 mark, with investors watching for its next direction.

The break below $1 came as derivatives exposure recovered while market-order data continued to favor sellers — a combination that highlights the difference between growing leveraged positions and sustained buying pressure in the spot market. Growing tensions across the Middle East could also affect crypto risk appetite more broadly, adding another layer of uncertainty as XRP trades around a level that has become a clear reference point for both momentum and sentiment.

Leverage Rebuilds as Order Flow Favors Sellers

CryptoQuant data cited by CryptoSlate showed Binance's seven-day change in XRP open interest moving from about -13% on August 1 to +7.4% by August 11, indicating that traders were adding leveraged exposure again after reducing it at the start of the month. CryptoQuant analyst JA Maartunn reported that XRP open interest had increased by a further $171 million, or +20.5%, in the data he tracked. Rising open interest on its own does not establish whether new positions are bullish or bearish, however, because derivatives contracts have counterparties on both sides.

Other measures pointed to continued selling pressure. Binance's perpetual cumulative volume delta (CVD) fell from roughly -$251 million at the beginning of August to -$349.5 million by August 11. CryptoSlate describes CVD as a measure of the balance between market-buy and market-sell orders; increasingly negative readings indicate that sellers are crossing the spread more aggressively than buyers. Estimated spot CVD across centralized exchanges also deteriorated over the same period, falling from approximately $193 million to -$34.3 million. CoinGlass data cited in the report showed XRP's long-to-short account ratio at 0.8432 near the $1 level, with roughly 45.7% of positioned accounts long and 54.3% short.

Trading Activity Has Contracted From Earlier Levels

XRP's bearish positioning has developed in a derivatives market that remains smaller than it was earlier in 2026. CoinGlass data showed XRP futures open interest at around $2.69 billion and 24-hour futures turnover near $2.17 billion on the Tuesday covered by the report. For comparison, XRP derivatives volume reached $5.93 billion on January 5, when open interest stood around $3.86 billion. As recently as August 5, futures volume had fallen to approximately $1.35 billion and open interest to about $2.25 billion, meaning the subsequent pickup came from a lower base than at the beginning of the year.

Thinner trading conditions can increase the market impact of large orders, which makes order-book depth especially relevant when prices are already testing a round-number support zone. XRP commentator Vincent Van Code said Binance's 24-hour XRP volume had declined to about $68 million from levels above $1 billion, and estimated that roughly $4 million in sell orders could push the token toward $0.95 under the order-book conditions he observed.

#XRP WARNING! If $XRP CONFIRMS a break below its 9-YEAR TRENDLINE… I expect CRASH for the next BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY of a lifetime like last cycle when we made MILLIONS! Preparing for WORST CASE before NEXT MAJOR TOP in 2028-ish Full chart update on Patreon TONIGHT!… pic.twitter.com/cseNO3ai9a

— JD (@jaydee_757) August 16, 2026 — https://x.com/jaydee_757/status/2089107738865578130

ETF Inflows Continue, but TOXR Has Faced Redemptions

US-listed XRP investment products saw four consecutive months of inflows exceeding $300 million, with monthly totals of $81.59 million in April, $131.94 million in May, $59.46 million in June, and $27.29 million in July, as reported by CoinGlass.

In contrast, 21Shares' XRP ETF (TOXR) reported a 54.4% decline in net assets by the end of June, dropping to $112.9 million from $247.7 million in December. During this period, XRP's price fell 42.9% to $1.0431, and TOXR's shares in circulation decreased from 13.89 million to 11.11 million.

In the first half of 2026, TOXR had $75 million in redemption distributions compared with $25.5 million in creations, resulting in negative net capital of $49.5 million. The fund faced $13.36 million in losses from XRP redemptions and $71.52 million in unrealized depreciation on held tokens. Despite positive net issuance in the second quarter, TOXR remained the only US spot XRP ETF with negative cumulative flows since launch, at around $20 million.

Coreum Bridge Incident Added to Market Unease

Market weakness also coincided with a security incident involving infrastructure connecting the XRP Ledger to Coreum. On August 9, the XRPL account used by the Coreum bridge sent 199,916.3 XRP to two newly created wallets across 94 payments, reducing its balance from roughly 200,000 XRP to 493.5 XRP, according to an investigation cited by CryptoSlate.

Subsequent analysis attributed the incident to relayer software rather than a vulnerability in native XRP or the XRP Ledger. The investigation found that the outgoing payments were authorized through the bridge's multisignature arrangement, and concluded that the bridge logic had allowed unbacked balances to be created and redeemed for XRP.

An XRP bridge was drained because it believed deposits that never happened An attacker exploited deposit-detection logic on the bridge linking the $XRP Ledger to the tx chain, minting bridged XRP against transactions that delivered nothing, then swapping it back for real XRP.… pic.twitter.com/VlADQmZB20

— BSCN (@BSCNews) August 14, 2026 — https://x.com/BSCNews/status/2088375358412251153

Source: 99Bitcoins, CoinGlass