An outlier has just appeared in the XRP derivatives market, the kind of statistical anomaly that makes you stop and double-check whether the number is real. According to a report from CoinGlass, the liquidation heatmap shows a four-hour chart with a 29,668,367% liquidation imbalance, with long liquidations reaching $175,000 while shorts only generated $588.

Such a lopsided spread essentially confirms the main signal that the chart has been flashing: shorts are currently not taking XRP seriously.

Source: CoinGlass

This morning’s weakness in the XRP price action hasn’t changed the situation. XRP fell out of its intraday trading range, broke through several price levels, but still failed to attract any substantial downside capital. No new short positions appeared, no pressure built up, and no one attempted to force the price down.

The market simply sold off long positions and kept moving.

Why is no one shorting XRP?
The "max pain" chart repeats the same message: the max pain price for shorts is 9.71% higher than the spot price. Currently, this part of the risk exposure is valued at $12 million, which alone is enough to prevent shorts from taking aggressive strategies—opening positions too early could immediately put them in a loss-making zone, so they maintain light positions and bide their time.

All of this leaves XRP in a strange position: the price is dropping, but not because of short pressure, rather due to a lack of leveraged support from longs.

Until shorts truly step in, XRP’s pullback looks more like a routine reset than a controlled trend move—a market with no pressure may drop, but it can’t be forced down artificially.