XRP leverage flushed, price holds at $1.39 — and the book is now clean for a fresh move.

<a class="ticker-mention" href="/en-US/token/xrp">XRP</a>&#x27;s estimated leverage ratio dropped from 0.201 to 0.160 between March 15 and May 1, yet price held near $1.39 with $85.7 billion in market cap and $1.75 billion in daily volume. CryptoQuant analyst PelinayPA flagged that traders shed speculative exposure without dragging price down — the kind of setup where new long-side leverage entering a clean book can push harder and faster, with less stale positioning to shake out first.

The structural backdrop has also shifted materially. CME launched XRP futures in May 2025, clearing over $19 million in notional on day one, with options now live alongside them — regulated rails that didn&#x27;t exist in prior XRP cycles. The SEC case against Ripple is closed, Franklin Templeton has filed for an XRP ETF, and CoinShares recorded $119.6 million in XRP product inflows the week of April 7, with year-to-date flows at $147.8 million and AUM near $2.6…