XRP adoption and deleveraging
Perpetual open interest in XRP plunged from about $7 billion to $1.5 billion as derivatives traders deleveraged, according to shared Glassnode data. (x.com) Meanwhile Rakuten Wallet added XRP for its 100M+ users, enabling buys/sells and Rakuten Point conversions across merchants. (x.com)
XRP is seeing two opposite moves at once: leveraged futures bets have shrunk sharply, while Rakuten Wallet is adding spot trading for Japanese retail users. (binance.com) (rakuten-wallet.co.jp) Glassnode data shared Monday said XRP perpetual open interest fell to about $1.5 billion after an earlier washout cut it from roughly $7 billion to $2 billion in early October 2025. The latest drop was described as another 25% contraction in leverage. (binance.com) Open interest tracks how many futures contracts remain open, and Glassnode says it uses that measure to read when traders are adding or closing borrowed bets. In crypto, perpetual futures often trade in larger volumes than the underlying spot market, which can amplify price swings. (insights.glassnode.com) Rakuten Wallet said on April 7 that it will add XRP, Dogecoin, Stellar Lumens, Shiba Inu and Toncoin to its crypto trading app on April 15. The company paired the launch with an XRP promotion that runs through May 15 at 9:59 a.m. Japan time. (rakuten-wallet.co.jp) Rakuten Wallet’s app lets users buy and sell spot crypto and convert Rakuten Points into supported tokens. The company says point conversions start at 100 points, with 1 point treated as 1 yen equivalent. (rakuten-wallet.co.jp 1) (rakuten-wallet.co.jp 2) That means XRP is losing some of its derivatives froth at the same time it is being put in front of a large consumer-finance audience inside Japan’s Rakuten ecosystem. Rakuten Group says its broader membership base exceeds 100 million in Japan. (rakuten-wallet.co.jp) (global.rakuten.com) Glassnode had already flagged XRP as a retail-heavy market in an April 2, 2025 research note, citing a 490% spike in address activity and a near-doubling in realized capitalization during an earlier rally. That note also said profitability faded quickly after the burst of inflows. (insights.glassnode.com) The combined picture is simpler than the market jargon suggests: fewer borrowed bets are still open, but a new spot on-ramp is arriving for everyday buyers. Whether that shifts XRP trading from leverage to cash purchases should become clearer after Rakuten’s April 15 launch. (binance.com) (rakuten-wallet.co.jp)
