XRP Price Action Under Pressure as $1.40 Options Strike Becomes Critical Battleground

XRP (XRP) is trading just above a level heavily targeted by derivative traders, making it a critical zone for near-term price action.

The payments-focused cryptocurrency changed hands at around $1.50 at press time, placing just above a notable concentration of options activity at $1.40 on crypto exchange Deribit. XRP is used by Ripple to facilitate cross-border transactions.

Options are derivatives contracts whose value is derived from an underlying asset, in this case XRP. They give traders the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell XRP at a specific price (known as the strike) before a set expiry date. Call options are typically used to bet on upside, while put options are used to hedge or speculate on downside.

As of writing, about $6.95 million worth of call option positions were open at the $1.40 strike, alongside $7.69 million in put positions at the same level. In total, that brings the value of outstanding or “open” contracts at this strike to roughly $14.6 million, or nearly 25% of all XRP options open on the exchange. Most of this open interest in concentrated in the March 27 expiry.

CoinDesk reached out to Deribit for a comment on the same.

This kind of clustering at a single strike is unusual and typically signals that the market is approaching a key inflection point.

This concentration of options activity at $1.40 isn’t just a technical curiosity—it’s a potential price magnet that could dictate XRP’s near-term trajectory. Market makers and traders who sold options at this level are “short gamma,” meaning they’ll need to dynamically hedge their exposure as the price approaches expiry. This hedging activity can create self-fulfilling price movements, potentially “pinning” XRP to the $1.40 level as traders adjust their positions.

The phenomenon is well-documented in traditional markets, particularly in major currency pairs like EUR/USD, where large options strikes often act as gravitational price zones in the days leading up to expiry. For XRP, this $1.40 level represents a critical threshold where the balance between bullish and bearish positioning could tip decisively in either direction.

What makes this situation particularly interesting is the timing. With March 27 expiry approaching, we’re entering the window where options market dynamics typically exert the strongest influence on spot prices. Traders need to watch this level closely in the days ahead. A sustained move above it could leave much of the put-side open interest to expire worthless, while a drop below it could trigger hedging flows that amplify selling pressure.

Either way, the heavy concentration of options at this strike suggests that XRP’s short-term price action could be heavily influenced by how this open interest unwinds or gets settled. The next few days could see increased volatility as the market digests this options-related pressure, making $1.40 the most important price level for XRP traders to monitor.

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