Buying in XRP’s spot market has climbed to its strongest level since June, but bearish bets have grown in Binance’s perpetual futures market.

On July 24, blockchain media outlet The Crypto Basic reported that sentiment is diverging sharply between spot and derivatives markets, widening a split in positioning in the XRP market.

CryptoQuant analyst Amr Taha said the cumulative volume delta (CVD) for spot cumulative trading volume across centralised exchanges (CEX) stood at about $388.6 million as of July 23. That was the highest level since June 1. The indicator tracks aggressive buying and selling across centralised spot exchanges, and the recent rise is interpreted as a signal that spot investors’ buying pressure has strengthened.

Actual data showed a different trend in the derivatives market. Binance’s XRP perpetual futures CVD fell to about -$547.4 million on July 23. That means aggressive sell orders continued to dominate in the futures market. Given that the lowest reading in May was around -$5 million, bearish positions using leverage have increased sharply.

Amr Taha pointed out that spot investors are stepping up direct buying of XRP, while futures traders are doing the opposite by betting on a decline. He drew particular attention to the combination of rising open interest and deeply negative perpetual futures CVD. He explained that this suggests new leveraged short positions are entering the market, but that open interest alone cannot determine the direction of all new positions.

Open interest also increased. Binance XRP open interest rose to $215.7 million on July 23 from about $198 million on July 8. The increase was about 9 percent. This suggests that new leveraged funds may be flowing in, rather than merely reflecting the liquidation of existing long positions.

Spot trading demand was not concentrated on a single exchange. Coinbase’s XRP spot trading volume was about $157 million on July 21, while Binance posted about $111 million over the same period. This indicates buying demand appeared across major exchanges rather than on a single platform. It also showed XRP spot demand was not limited to some participants and was spread relatively broadly.

The XRP market has seen a widening gap in views between spot and futures. Spot investors are increasing purchases and showing confidence, while leveraged futures traders continue to build downside exposure. If prices move sharply in one direction, the divergence can trigger liquidations of opposing positions, making it a point market participants are watching.