Analysis: The increase in XRP and DOGE contract holdings but dwindling price momentum may indicate that the market's preference for volatility and downside risk is growing

BlockBeats News, May 14th, despite the sluggish spot price, speculative positions in the XRP and Dogecoin (DOGE) futures markets continue to accumulate, indicating a growing market preference for volatility and downside risk. The data shows:

· DOGE Futures: The open interest in futures contracts surged by 63.9% within a week (from 9.89 billion to 16.2 billion USD), while the spot price rose by 40% to $0.23 during the same period;
· XRP Futures: The open interest in contracts grew by 41.6% during the same period (with an increase of over 1 billion USD), with a relatively moderate spot price increase (from 2.14 to 2.6 USD).

On-chain analytics company Glassnode stated that the divergence between price momentum decay and the spike in open interest implies that speculative positions continue to accumulate, a situation that warrants caution. Open interest (OI) serves as a barometer of speculative activity, and when it diverges from a stagnant price, it often indicates that leverage growth has outpaced actual confidence—this pattern has led to flash crashes multiple times in the past.