Coinbase XRP looked cheap on Nov. 2 despite identical market value
Quick Take
- XRP’s Nov. 2 Coinbase discount shrank from 0.168% to 0.006% after converting Binance’s USDT quote into dollars.
- Seven completed daily observations retained residual discounts on Oct. 30 and 31, limiting any universal parity conclusion.
- A separate 60-minute sample shifted to a small adjusted premium, while comparable seller-initiated flow remains unestablished.
XRP’s apparent Coinbase discount at the Nov. 2 close shrinks from about 0.168% to 0.006% when Binance’s Tether (USDT) quote is converted into dollars. The independent exchange-price comparison separates the quote-currency effect from the remaining difference in XRP prices.
The user Arab Chain on CryptoQuant reported an approximately -0.16% XRP Coinbase Premium Index reading on Nov. 2, describing it as an eight-month low and interpreting it as relatively weaker Coinbase demand.
The post also cautioned that the index alone was not definitive evidence of continued downside pressure.
What the dollar conversion changes
The completed Nov. 2 candles put Coinbase XRP/USD at $1.2481, Binance XRP/USDT at 1.2502 USDT and Coinbase USDT/USD at $0.99838.
The adjustment multiplies Binance’s XRP price by USDT’s dollar price, then compares Coinbase against that converted figure. Expressed as a percentage, the formula is:
100 × [Coinbase XRP/USD ÷ (Binance XRP/USDT × USDT/USD) − 1].
This uses Coinbase’s USDT/USD market as the conversion reference. It is a venue price, rather than a universal redemption rate or evidence about why USDT traded below one dollar.
XRP’s November 2 gap: -0.168% raw, -0.006% adjusted
At the November 2 close, the gap shrinks after converting USDT into dollars. October 31 shows why the adjustment does not always leave near parity.
How much survives the conversion?
November 2, 2026 UTC close: raw -0.168%; dollar-adjusted -0.006%. The remaining dollar-price gap is close to zero.
Normalize the quote currency first. Then ask whether a remaining venue-price discount persists.
Closing trades are asynchronous, not executable quotes. Coinbase USDT/USD is a venue reference. Fees, spreads and rounding matter. This does not reproduce CryptoQuant’s proprietary index or identify selling counterparties.
Sources
Supporting facts
- Across seven completed UTC daily candles, the independent raw/adjusted Coinbase gaps were October 27 -0.135%/-0.001%, October 28 -0.128%/-0.019%, October 29 -0.226%/-0.002%, October 30 -0.199%/-0.066%, October 31 -0.200%/-0.078%, November 1 -0.128%/+0.002% and November 2 -0.168%/-0.006%; conversion does not remove every discount. [1] [2] [3]
- Coinbase defines candle close as the last trade in a bucket and warns that intervals without ticks may be missing; Binance identifies klines by open time, defaults to UTC and places close at index 4. [4] [5]
Method
The raw percentage compares Coinbase’s dollar close directly with Binance’s USDT close. The adjusted percentage first multiplies Binance’s close by Coinbase USDT/USD, then divides Coinbase XRP/USD by that product, subtracts one and multiplies by 100. Completed UTC days only. Labels and bars use three-decimal percentages on a shared scale from minus 0.25 percent to zero.
Scope
Closing trades are asynchronous, not executable quotes. Coinbase USDT/USD is a venue reference. Fees, spreads and rounding matter. This does not reproduce CryptoQuant’s proprietary index or identify selling counterparties.
CryptoSlateAcross all seven completed UTC daily observations, the adjustment narrowed the discount, but did not eliminate it every day:
| UTC date (2026) | Raw gap | Dollar-adjusted gap |
|---|---|---|
| Oct. 27 | -0.135% | -0.001% |
| Oct. 28 | -0.128% | -0.019% |
| Oct. 29 | -0.226% | -0.002% |
| Oct. 30 | -0.199% | -0.066% |
| Oct. 31 | -0.200% | -0.078% |
| Nov. 1 | -0.128% | +0.002% |
| Nov. 2 | -0.168% | -0.006% |
Negative values mean Coinbase was cheaper, while positive values mean it was more expensive. Figures are rounded to three decimal places from the three exchange datasets.
Oct. 30 and 31 adjusted discounts remained about 0.066% and 0.078%, respectively, and the Nov. 2 finding supports checking the currency conversion.
A separate check used 60 matched one-minute buckets from Nov. 2, 12:00-12:59 UTC, combining Coinbase XRP/USD, Binance XRP/USDT and Coinbase USDT/USD. Its median raw gap was about -0.128%, and the median dollar-adjusted gap was approximately +0.006%.
XRP was near $1.28 on Nov. 3. Around 13:15 UTC, Coinbase’s ticker reported a $1.276 last trade, above its $1.2481 Nov. 2 close, while Binance’s rolling ticker showed 1.2780 USDT.
What would establish weaker XRP demand?
A relative-demand warning would be more persuasive if a discount persisted after currency conversion alongside comparatively heavier seller-initiated XRP trading over equivalent windows.
The measurement stops short of an executable arbitrage test. Coinbase defines candle closes as the last trade within each bucket, while Binance’s candles use matching time intervals. Rounding, bid-ask spreads, fees, and differences between venues are important when a residual gap is this small.
An August 2025 XRP liquidity study exposed a similar disconnect: XRP prices remained closely aligned across Binance and Coinbase even as trading activity was concentrated in different quote currencies.
Price consistency does not guarantee equally accessible liquidity, and traders may see nearly identical quotes but face substantially different execution costs and slippage, particularly during periods of market stress.
On Nov. 2’s closing observations, the unadjusted gap by itself substantially overstates the remaining dollar-price difference.
Mentioned in this article
Editorial credits
Gino Matos is a law school graduate and a seasoned journalist with six years of experience in the crypto industry. His expertise primarily focuses on the Brazilian blockchain…