XRP has recently faced net selling pressure of nearly $2 billion in spot and perpetual futures markets.

On Oct. 18, blockchain media outlet The Crypto Basic reported that from Sept. 23 to Oct. 16 the combined decline in XRP cumulative volume delta (CVD) across spot and derivatives markets totalled $1.988 billion.

The trend appeared in both spot and leveraged products. Across centralised exchanges, XRP spot CVD fell to between -$1.9 billion and -$3.2 billion over the period. Binance's XRP perpetual futures CVD worsened to between -$812 million and -$1.5 billion. The decline was $688 million.

CVD is an indicator that shows the difference between aggressive buying and aggressive selling. A falling CVD means sell orders hit bid prices more often. The figures show selling pressure persisted at the same time in spot trading and leveraged derivatives.

The pressure emerged from mid-September. Based on CryptoQuant data, Binance's perpetual futures CVD was then about -$1 billion, and centralised exchange spot CVD had fallen to about -$2.1 billion. As the recent drop again approached $2 billion, selling continued after mid-September and both indicators were pushed further into negative territory.

Derivatives positions also contracted. Binance's XRP open interest fell to 228 million XRP from 302 million XRP. That was a decline of 74 million XRP, or 24.5 percent. Bybit fell more sharply to 258 million XRP from 359 million XRP. It dropped by 101 million XRP, a decline of about 28.1 percent. The combined decline at the two exchanges was 175 million XRP, or 26.5 percent.

Open interest refers to the volume of futures and perpetual contracts that remain open. When price weakness, a falling CVD and declining open interest appear together, it suggests leveraged long positions may be unwinding rather than new shorts expanding. A reduction in leverage does not automatically guarantee a price rebound.

Liquidation data also showed the burden on bullish positions. During the period, XRP saw long liquidations above $10 million several times. The largest liquidation was $17 million.

By contrast, more short liquidations were tallied above the current price. On the liquidation heatmap, two major short liquidation clusters near the top of the market totalled $54.7 million. Two major long liquidation clusters below the current price totalled $14.17 million. That means the upper short liquidation clusters were about 3.86 times larger than the lower long liquidation clusters.

This suggests that while long positions were unwound to a significant extent during the recent decline, a larger amount of short positions remains concentrated above the current price. The market is watching whether spot selling pressure eases and which direction of liquidation is triggered first after derivatives positions shrank.