XRP volume explodes to $7.4B, and a massive CME short squeeze is blamed

XRP registered an intraday high of $1.60 on Sept. 22, with roughly $7.4 billion in reported volume. The move was strong, but the latest public data on regulated futures showed different positioning shifts across venues.The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Sept. 15 snapshot showed leveraged funds cutting their net short in CME futures by the equivalent of 46.3 million XRP in one week. Net short means reported short contracts exceeded reported long contracts.Across three separately reported Coinbase Derivatives products, adjusted for each contract's unit, the same trader category reduced its combined net short by only 2.452 million XRP and remained short about 141.6 million XRP.That disconnect points to a concentrated positioning reset. The dates also block a causal conclusion: the positions were observed Sept. 15 and released Sept. 18, before the Sept. 22 price snapshot.CME's reset dwarfed the Coinbase shiftCME's standard future represents 50,000 XRP per contract. Leveraged funds held 1,585 long contracts and 2,304 short contracts on Sept. 15, leaving a 719-contract net short equal to 35.95 million XRP.A week earlier, their reported position was 1,280 longs against 2,925 short...