A heavily leveraged XRP whale suffered a $28.2 million loss after the token’s price dropped into the trader’s liquidation range. The whale had opened multiple long positions near $1.11 using roughly 10x leverage, holding a combined total of nearly 28 million XRP across two main positions. When selling pressure pushed XRP down to $1.0194, the exchange automatically liquidated the first position of 5.58 million XRP. Moments later, a further decline to $1.0091 forced the closure of the second, larger position of 22.33 million XRP. The same trader also lost an additional $47.5 million from leveraged Bitcoin positions, bringing total forced liquidations to approximately $75 million.
The broader crypto market suffered over $1.07 billion in liquidations within a 24-hour window, with long positions accounting for $842 million. XRP alone contributed $43.96 million in total liquidations, of which $43.12 million were longs. The whale’s account balance plummeted to about $1.6 million after the event.
The liquidation wave extended beyond the whale. On June 25, XRP long liquidations hit a five-month high of nearly $9 million—the largest single-day long liquidation since February 5, according to CryptoQuant data. Nearly half of that, $4.5 million, occurred on Binance. The sell-off briefly dragged XRP to $1.02 on June 26, the lowest since February, before a modest recovery to around $1.06.
Derivatives activity weakened sharply. Binance’s XRP open interest fell to roughly $205 million, the lowest since March 22, while Bybit’s declined to about $185 million, a level last seen on June 6. The decline in open interest indicates that traders are closing positions rather than opening new ones, reflecting reduced risk appetite.
Adding to the cautious mood, crypto analyst EGRAG CRYPTO highlighted that XRP has historically posted sharp corrections in June during U.S. midterm election years—17% in 2014, 39% in 2018, and 32% in 2022. As of late June 2026, the token was down roughly 25% for the month. If the historical average decline of 29.3% repeats, XRP could trade near $0.94; a worst-case repeat of the 39% drop would put it around $0.81. Although past patterns do not guarantee future outcomes, they underscore the magnitude of prior June sell-offs.
