XRP was trading near $1.50 at press time, only slightly above a heavily crowded options strike at $1.40 on Deribit. Open interest at that single level totals about $14.6 million, accounting for nearly 25% of all XRP options open on the exchange. That concentration has turned $1.40 into one of the most important short-term reference points for traders.
Calls and puts are stacked at the same strike
At the $1.40 strike, open call positions stand at roughly $6.95 million, while open put positions total about $7.69 million. Combined, they form an unusually large cluster for one strike price. Most of that open interest is tied to contracts expiring on March 27, which puts added focus on how XRP behaves as expiry gets closer.
Options derive their value from an underlying asset, in this case XRP. Call options are commonly used to position for upside, while puts are often used for downside speculation or hedging. With so much open interest packed into one strike, price moves near expiration can become more sensitive to positioning and risk management flows.
Expiry dynamics could pull price toward $1.40
This type of concentration is often watched for a possible “pinning” effect, where price tends to gravitate toward a heavily traded strike as expiration approaches. If market makers, or traders who sold options at $1.40 and are short gamma, need to hedge dynamically, their trading activity can help pull XRP back toward that level.
The pattern is well known in currency markets. Major pairs such as EUR/USD often drift toward large strikes near expiry, and traders are now watching whether XRP shows a similar setup. The closer spot remains to the strike, the stronger that influence can become.
What happens above or below $1.40 matters
For the next several days, $1.40 is the level to monitor. If XRP holds above it, a sizable portion of put open interest could expire worthless. If price slips below it, hedging activity may add to selling pressure. In either case, short-term trading may be shaped less by directional conviction and more by how this open interest is closed, rolled, or settled into expiry.
That leaves XRP in a tight spot. With such a large share of options interest concentrated at one strike, the path of least resistance in the near term may depend on how the market reacts around $1.40.