We are shorting XRP because it seems that the market has substantially overreacted to the CFTC labeling Bitcoin & Ethereum as commodities within its case against Binance. We already knew that these regulators thought of Bitcoin and many other cryptos as commodities, so this does not come as any sort of breaking news, and it does not move Ripple out of hot water for issuing an unregistered security, since XRP is a far cry from Ethereum or Bitcoin.
Retail seems to have latched onto this fictitious (or at very least greatly exaggerated) narrative, as open interest rose from 400 million XRP in perps back on March 24th all the way up to a present value above 600 million XRP just 4 days later. We think about a sharp increase in open interest like this as a sign of retail exuberance which often leads to a move down.