XRP open interest jumped 184.3% to $0.92 billion. That's the single biggest short and long-term bet rebuild on the token in recent memory, and it arrived the same day veteran trader Peter Brandt published a bullish XRP target.
What the open interest number actually means
Open interest is the total dollar value of futures contracts on XRP that traders have opened but not yet closed. When it more than doubles, as it just did to $0.92B, it means real money is staking positions via leverage, not existing positions being liquidated. That matters because leverage cuts both ways.
Longs arriving at $1.50 get punished fast on a flush. Shorts crowding in offer fuel for a squeeze. Either way, the next big move in XRP is more likely to be violent than slow.
U.Today covered Brandt's call on October 6, 2026, naming the level at $2.16.
Brandt's $2.16 measured move
Brandt told followers on X that he sees a cup-and-handle forming on XRP's chart. On a larger timeframe, he thinks it could be the right shoulder of an inverse head-and-shoulders instead. The trader follows a concept he calls measured moves: take the height of a completed pattern and project it upward from the breakout point.
That projected height lands at $2.16. From a spot price near $1.50, that's about a 44% climb. Brandt was careful to flag an asterisk.
He described the right shoulder of the pattern as poorly formed and abbreviated, which usually means more right shoulder is still developing. But "not necessarily," he added. Patterns do this all the time.
They start as one thing and morph into another, and measured moves are objectives, not guarantees.
The overhead supply problem
Brandt's own chart work carried a warning sign. Looking at the weekly view, XRP still sits well below the peaks from its last major run. That means a thick band of holders bought in higher and are sitting on losses.
Many of them just want their money back and will sell the moment price reaches their cost basis. Brandt put it bluntly: XRP has a "TON of overhead supply." He contrasted it with Monero, which he argued has already absorbed its supply, and Solana, which he said shows a cleaner cup-and-handle.
Among major names, his stated favorite by far was XMR.
Where this leaves the trade
XRP was up about 5.5% over the past month and near $1.50 as of October 6, according to CoinGecko figures cited by U.Today. Market cap sits around $94.65 billion. $2.16 is roughly 44% away on the upside, a level XRP has not confirmed with a daily closing break.
The next concrete test is a daily close above the pattern's breakout zone. If that happens with $0.92B of open interest sitting on top of it, the measured move says $2.16. If it fails, the chart pivots back to the overhead supply waiting overhead.