XRP Spot Inflows Turn Positive, But Funding Rates Signal Short Positions May Be Building

Net inflows to spot XRP tokens turned positive early Thursday after days of outflows, putting the token in focus following a record-breaking month for its native decentralized exchange (DEX).

Spot XRP token inflows turned positive on Thursday, breaking a streak of outflows, and putting the token in focus after a record month for its native decentralized exchange (DEX).

Over $15 million in XRP flowed into centralized exchanges on Thursday, led by deposits to Bybit and Kraken, according to data from Coinglass.

Spot inflows to exchanges are often seen as an indication of traders’ intention to sell tokens on the open market, which could put a damper on any hopes for a XRP rally.

Meanwhile, 8-hour funding rates in the XRP perpetual futures markets stood at -0.0065% as of Thursday morning, according to Bybit, indicating a bias for short positions that stand to benefit from price drops.

In fact, XRP’s funding rates were more negative than both ETH and BTC.

Negative funding rates mean traders holding short positions are willing to pay a small fee to those with long positions to keep their bearish bets open.

XRP below key averages

On the price front, XRP was trading below several key moving averages, with the 10-day exponential moving average (EMA) at $2.84 and 21-day EMA at $2.88.

Trading below these moving averages is typically seen as a bearish short-term outlook.

However, the 100-day simple moving average (SMA) is just above $2, and the 200-day SMA is at $1.30, both of which are below the current price, indicating a bullish longer-term trend.

Moving averages are used to help identify trends by smoothing out price data, and the period readings used above are among those popularly used by retail traders.

Immediate resistance is seen at $2.49, followed by the $2.60 level. A move past these levels would revive the bullish outlook, setting the stage for a run to the $3 mark, which XRP last breached in January for the first time since 2018.

XRP’s 14-day relative strength index (RSI) — which measures the magnitude of price changes — was just over 36 in Asian hours, placing it in the neutral zone.

Traditionally, RSI values above 70 indicate overbought conditions, while values below 30 suggest oversold conditions. An RSI around 50 is considered neutral.