Ethereum Options Show Rising Downside Hedges While XRP Flows Turn Modestly Bullish

Options positioning across major altcoins diverged on Thursday, with Ethereum (ETH) showing signs of heavier near-term downside hedging while Solana (SOL) remained broadly balanced and XRP (XRP) tilted modestly bullish in flow terms. The split underscores how traders are differentiating risk across large-cap tokens as spot prices slide into key technical levels and expiries concentrate around widely watched strikes.

As of 10:25 a.m. KST on June 26 (9:25 p.m. ET on June 25), data from Deribit—the largest cryptocurrency options exchange—showed open interest for options expiring that day at roughly 1,003,753 contracts for Ethereum (about $1.57 billion notional), 1,003,753 contracts for Solana (about $67.5 million), and 41,619 contracts for XRP (about $43.0 million).

Open interest put/call ratios stood at 0.51 for Ethereum, 0.51 for Solana, and 0.71 for XRP, indicating that outstanding contracts were still skewed toward call options across all three assets. In options markets, a call represents the right to buy at a fixed price and is commonly used for 'bullish exposure', while a put represents the right to sell and is often used for 'downside protection' or bearish positioning. Open interest reflects the total number of outstanding contracts that have not been closed or settled.

However, the more immediate signal came from trading activity over the past 24 hours. Deribit’s data showed total options volume of 222,802 contracts for Ethereum, 102,760 for Solana, and 3,016,000 for XRP. On that basis, volume-based put/call ratios were 1.25 for Ethereum, 1.01 for Solana, and 0.95 for XRP—suggesting ETH traders were buying puts more aggressively than calls in the short run, while SOL flows were close to neutral and XRP leaned slightly toward calls.

For Ethereum, the contrast between call-heavy open interest and put-heavy recent volume can be read as a mix of longer-dated optimism and short-dated caution. Traders may still be holding upside structures accumulated earlier, but the latest positioning implies increased appetite for hedges or tactical bearish bets as ETH weakened. The most actively traded strikes referenced in the data included the June 26 $1,550 put as well as June 26 $1,675 and $1,600 calls, alongside $1,600 and $1,300 puts spanning late June to early July expiries.

“Max pain” levels—the strike price at which option holders collectively would see the largest losses at expiration, a level some traders track as a potential magnet into expiry—were cited at $2,000 for Ethereum, $2,000 for Solana, and $1.30 for XRP. While max pain is not predictive on its own, a large concentration of open interest near a strike can matter into settlement windows, particularly when spot approaches those levels and market makers adjust hedges.

Ethereum’s largest open interest was clustered around the $2,000 call, with additional significant positioning at $2,500 and $5,500 calls—strikes that point to traders maintaining exposure to a broader upside scenario even as the token sells off in the near term. That said, with ETH trading well below $2,000, those call concentrations also highlight how far spot has moved away from earlier bullish targets, potentially increasing the relevance of protective structures in short-dated maturities.

Solana’s open interest was dominated by the $100 call, followed by the $140 call and the $75 put, painting a picture of continued upside interest paired with visible downside hedging. In the latest flow, the most traded contracts included the June 27 $69 call, the June 26 $65 put, and a mix of $69 and $66 puts across June 26–27 expiries. The near-flat volume put/call ratio reinforces the idea that SOL traders are still 'searching for direction' rather than expressing a strong consensus view.

XRP’s open interest was led by the $1.30 put, but the $1.30 call and $1.40 call also ranked among the largest positions, implying a market bracing for volatility around a key price zone. Recent flow leaned slightly constructive: the top-traded contracts included the June 26 $1.05 call, the June 26 $1.00 put, and the June 26 $1.10 call, alongside shorter-dated positions rolling into June 27.

Spot prices were lower across the board at the same timestamp, according to TokenPost Market data. Ethereum (ETH) traded at $1,563, down 3.17% on the day, while Solana (SOL) slipped 0.02% to $67.62. XRP (XRP) fell 3.01% to $1.04. The combination of falling spot and ETH’s elevated put-heavy volume suggests that traders may be treating Ethereum as a higher-probability candidate for further short-term drawdowns, while maintaining longer-term optionality via call structures.

Overall, the day’s options tape portrays a market that is not uniformly risk-on or risk-off, but instead selectively pricing near-term stress and hedging needs—particularly in ETH—while leaving room for rebound scenarios in SOL and XRP. With expiries and large strike clusters in focus, price behavior around concentrated levels could remain sensitive to positioning shifts and dealer hedging dynamics into the next settlement window.