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The XRP Bitwise XRP ETF has seen another sharp reversal in short positioning, with the rebuild that dominated last week's note now fully unwinding.
The October 7 article described shorts returning with force, pushing short interest back to 15.8% of the free float and the ORTEX short score climbing to 47.6. That has now reversed completely. Short interest has collapsed from that peak, falling 83% over the week to just 2.3% of the free float as of October 13. The ORTEX short score has tracked the retreat, dropping from 47.6 a week ago to 29.0 now, matching the trough reached in late September after the previous cover episode. The pattern is becoming familiar: shorts build, then cover sharply, then repeat.
The borrow market confirms the cover rather than contradicting it. Availability has swung from roughly 204% a week ago, when the note flagged meaningful tightening, back to nearly 1,972% now. That means almost twenty shares are available to borrow for every one currently lent out, a dramatic loosening in a matter of days. Cost to borrow has also eased, falling 10% over the week to 1.66%, and is down 45% from a month ago. Both metrics point the same direction: the demand for borrows has drained out of the market.
Options positioning has shifted slightly more defensive relative to its recent range, though the move is modest. The put/call ratio is 0.28, about 0.7 standard deviations above its 20-day average of 0.24. That places it near the top of its 52-week range of 0 to 0.33, but the z-score is not extreme. Options traders are mildly more cautious than their recent norm, but there is no sign of the kind of hedging demand that would suggest a sharp directional bet.
The ETF itself fell 8.8% over the past week to $15.32, retracing the gains that coincided with the short rebuild. The fund has now traced a clear oscillation: shorts pile in, the price weakens, shorts cover, the borrow market opens back up. Whether the next leg is another rebuild or a sustained period of low short interest is what to watch in the sessions ahead.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open XRP on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data and reviewed by the ORTEX team. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
