XRP remains steady as derivatives markets reveal a shift in investor sentiment, with long positions showing signs of reversal while broader crypto trends stay flat. Although headline crypto assets such as bitcoin and ether recovered from early losses, volatility remained subdued overall.

Trading activity across major cryptocurrencies stayed relatively muted as investors digested macro-political developments, including diplomatic meetings between Western leaders and Ukraine. The top tokens by market cap moved sideways, reflecting a lack of strong triggers in either direction, according to CoinDesk.

The CoinDesk 20 index recorded a modest gain of 0.5%, while the broader CoinDesk 80 index saw only a fractional increase. Memecoins declined 0.3%, pointing to a drop in speculative activity. Despite the flat conditions, several tokens bucked the trend. Notably, Mantle Network’s MNT token and HASH posted substantial double-digit gains over a 24-hour period.

Shifting Trends in Crypto Derivatives

Activity in the derivatives market tells a deeper story of investor repositioning. Bitcoin briefly tested the $115,000 mark overnight, prompting a decline in cumulative open interest for USDT perpetual futures on major platforms like Deribit, Binance, OKX, Bybit, and Hyperliquid. This figure dropped from 222,000 BTC to 214,000 BTC—marking the lowest level in over a week.

This move suggests that the price slip was largely caused by the closing of long positions, rather than the aggressive buildup of shorts. In contrast, ether futures saw a rise in open interest, climbing above 5 million ETH. This indicates an uptick in short positions, pointing toward bearish expectations in the ETH market.

Most major altcoins also experienced a dip in open interest, excluding ETH and BNB. Meanwhile, despite MNT’s 14% surge in the past day, derivatives data signals a cautionary tale: bearish funding rates and increased open interest suggest traders are using shorts to hedge long exposure accumulated during the rally.

On the CME platform, traditional BTC futures (sized at 5 BTC per contract) remained lightly traded, with the annualized three-month basis staying below the 10% mark. ETH contracts on CME told a different story—open interest rebounded to 1.83 million ETH after dipping to 1.51 million, hinting at renewed capital inflow. However, the ETH basis slipped to 8.90% from a previous 11%.

In options markets, ETH activity surged with open interest climbing over 200,000 ETH, the highest level since September. On Deribit, BTC put options with November expiration traded at a premium compared to calls, reflecting bearish short-term sentiment. ETH’s options market showed similar bearish trends extending to September.

Over-the-counter trading via the Paradigm network indicated interest in protective positioning. Key trades included long puts for BTC at $120,000 expiring August 22 and ETH $4,000 puts expiring August 29. These moves underscore investor caution amid uncertain near-term price direction.

Notable Token Developments

Several blockchain networks continue evolving beyond price action. Starknet rolled out its v0.14.0 upgrade, introducing a multi-sequencer protocol with Tendermint consensus—a major step toward decentralizing its transaction sequencing and proving mechanisms. This iteration also added a pre-confirmation system for near-instant updates and a fee model inspired by Ethereum’s EIP-1559, setting a minimum fee of 3 gFRI.

The upgrade is expected to come with a brief 15-minute mainnet outage. Future upgrades will aim to further decentralize Starknet’s infrastructure. These developments may impact the utility and demand for Starknet’s native STRK token, especially with the potential for long-term supply reduction due to base fee burns, as happened with Ethereum’s deflationary shift where over 5 million ETH has been burned.

Meanwhile, Solana made significant strides in DeFi adoption. The network’s total value locked (TVL) surged by 30.4% in Q2, reaching $8.6 billion. A major contributor was Kamino, responsible for $2 billion of that growth. However, spot decentralized exchange volumes fell 45% to $2.5 billion as meme-driven trading cooled off.

Chart illustrating shifting open interest in BTC and ETH derivatives markets across major platforms.

Stablecoin supply on Solana declined by 17%, totaling $10.3 billion. USDC dominated Solana’s stablecoin landscape with $7.2 billion in supply (69% market share), while USDT remained steady at roughly $2.3 billion.

Related: XRP Price: $12M Max Pain for Bears

Participation in liquid staking also grew, now encompassing 12.2% of the total SOL in circulation. The increase lifted total staked value to a massive $60 billion, contributing to improved DeFi yields. Solana’s circulating market cap climbed 30% to $82.8 billion, positioning it sixth among all digital assets.