Participation in the XRP spot market appears to have contracted quickly.

The seven-day average of XRP spot trading volume on centralised exchanges fell to $653.8 million from $2.597 billion between Aug. 26 and Oct. 11, a decline of $1.943 billion, blockchain media outlet The Crypto Basic reported on Oct. 13.

The figure is based on the daily average over the previous seven days. It is designed to smooth out some day-to-day spikes and drops and show the overall trend. The key point is that spot trading has not recovered even though the price has risen above its low range in August.

The decline was not limited to a single exchange. Binance's XRP spot trading volume fell to $168.0 million on Oct. 11 from $597.0 million on Aug. 26, a decrease of $429.0 million. Over the same period, combined spot volume on other centralised exchanges excluding Binance fell to $485.8 million from $2.0 billion. The drop of $1.514 billion was 3.53 times Binance's decline.

By contrast, the futures market stayed strong. In September, combined XRP futures trading volume on Binance, Bybit and OKX totalled $56.18 billion, the highest in the past six months. Binance accounted for $32.36 billion of that.

The gap between spot and futures also showed up in Binance's internal metrics. In Binance's spot-to-futures trading ratio, spot trading made up about 31 percent of total XRP trading on Sept. 26. By Oct. 11, it had fallen to 12.7 percent. That means spot accounted for a much smaller share of market activity.

A direct comparison of the two markets showed an even wider gap. As of Oct. 11, Binance's XRP futures trading volume was about 7.9 times its spot volume. On Sept. 26, it was about 3.2 times. That suggests the futures-led trading structure strengthened further in a short period.

On Aug. 16, the spot share fell to as low as 11 percent, and XRP was trading below $0.99 at the time. XRP is now trading around $1.36, but the gap between spot and futures remains similar to the scale seen in August's weak period.

Ultimately, market attention is focused on how much spot demand is supporting XRP's recent recovery. Spot trading fell to about one-third, while futures trading showed the strongest level in the past six months. As a result, whether the rebound in XRP prices is relying more on speculative trading centred on derivatives than on actual buying demand is expected to be a key point to watch for the time being.