XRP flips BNB as open interest builds back toward pre-crash levels

$XRP just reclaimed a ranking it hasn't held in weeks, and the derivatives market suggests traders are positioning for more.

The token surged to $1.53 on Tuesday, up 11% on the week, overtaking BNB to become the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap at $93.4 billion. The move broke through $1.40 resistance, per CoinDesk analytics, with trading volume exploding 125% to $3.22 billion.

Coinglass data shows $XRP open interest on Binance has climbed to 353.49 million $XRP as of March 17, up from 222.79 million on Oct. 24, 2025, when $XRP was trading at $2.39. That's a 59% increase in open interest while the price is 37% lower. New leveraged positions are building into the recovery rather than unwinding, which is a fundamentally different setup from the deleveraging that dominated January and February.

The Binance OI chart shows the full arc. Open interest peaked above 400 million $XRP in September 2025, collapsed during the October crash that took the price from $3.65 to below $2, and spent the next four months slowly rebuilding.

The current 353 million is approaching but hasn't yet matched those pre-crash levels, which means the market has room to add leverage before hitting the concentration that preceded the last wipeout.

Traders will likely now monitor whether the $1.50-$1.60 zone holds or becomes another failed breakout in a token that has been full of them since October. Open interest building into the move gives it more structural support than previous attempts, but $XRP approaching pre-crash leverage levels at 58% below the pre-crash price is a setup that works until it doesn't.