Leverage rush: what changed in four hours

After a brutal slide of more than 21% from $1.93 to a low of $1.52 between Jan. 28 and Feb. 2, XRP flushed out most late longs in a textbook deleveraging cascade. On Jan. 30 alone, long liquidations “totaled $69.42 million, representing the largest figure since the Oct. 10 crash,” while shorts saw just $1.33 million wiped out. The next day brought another $57.14 million in long liquidations, marking “a yearly high second only to the Jan. 30 figure.”

That reset set the stage for today’s violent snapback in futures activity. With spot now trading back above the key $1.60 area, which local analysts recently described as the level that “matters most right now,” futures flows have roared back. Over the past four hours, XRP futures recorded $162.22 million in inflows against $151.56 million in outflows, for a net $10.67 million — a 749% jump from prior readings. Even on a 12‑hour view, net inflows of $4.94 million, despite being down 49.81% from previous levels, confirm that traders are stepping back in with size.

Price outlook: rebound first, whipsaw later

Across timeframes from 5 minutes to 12 hours, net flows are now consistently positive, with the last hour alone showing $9.58 million in net inflows and the 5‑minute window printing $936,000 — a 670% spike. This rising tide of leveraged exposure “can help push prices higher in the short term as confidence returns,” but also leaves XRP “more sensitive to sudden moves,” where a quick sentiment turn could trigger another wave of forced selling, one analyst predicted.

Technically, the market is now trading in the gap between nearby support around $1.52 and resistance near $1.97, identified by independent analysts as the upside trigger that would “signal that buyers are regaining control.” If net inflows keep building and spot can hold above $1.60 on a closing basis, a grind toward the $1.90–$2.00 band looks plausible in the coming sessions; a sharp unwind of this fresh leverage, however, would likely drag XRP back toward the $1.50s.

Macro tape: majors still set the tone

This parabolic move comes as digital assets continue to trade as the purest expression of macro risk appetite. Bitcoin (BTC) changes hands near $78,700, with a 24‑hour range roughly between $75,000 and $79,100 on close to $84.5B in combined spot and futures volume. Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) also remain heavily traded, with Solana alone seeing more than $3.2B in turnover over the last day. In this context, XRP’s 749% futures netflow spike is less an isolated anomaly and more a high‑beta expression of returning speculative leverage across the sector.

Recent structural work on XRP’s February setup, including detailed breakdowns of the $1.71–$1.69 support band and the critical $1.97 reclaim level.