Tokens linked to Ripple have seen a resurgence in positive discussions on social media, a trend that historically serves as a contrarian indicator for prices. On April 29, the ratio of positive to negative sentiment regarding XRP on social media spiked into what Santiment refers to as the "FOMO zone," reaching 3.9 on the firm's tracker. This is the highest reading since March 19, when a similar spike was followed by a sharp decline. When sentiment ratios exceed the FOMO threshold, it indicates that the majority of crowd commentary is overwhelmingly positive, which Santiment interprets as a contrarian signal.
Historically, when social media chatter reaches these levels, the token tends to consolidate or correct in the following days as the buyers driving the social wave exhaust their demand. Partly due to the recent integration of XRP with Rakuten, which enables the conversion of points into XRP, the asset is experiencing its second-highest bullish sentiment on social media in the past two years. Traders are excited about the fact that the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization can now be used by an estimated 44 million Rakuten users across over 5 million merchant locations, as well as for spot trading within the Rakuten Pay app, and for converting their Rakuten points, of which 3 trillion are in circulation, worth approximately $23 billion, directly into XRP. The trigger for this surge appears to be the Rakuten Pay integration, which was launched in the first week of April and added XRP as a payment method across the Japanese wallet application's ecosystem.
The announcement was described by Ripple's senior ecosystem growth manager, Tatsuya Kohrogi, as "one of the most significant XRP milestones." The market took two weeks to fully process the implications, with sentiment gradually building before spiking this week. XRP was trading at $1.37 on Thursday, down 2.1% over 24 hours and 3.7% over the week, despite the intense social media activity.
Santiment also identified March 29 as the previous "buy the dip" window, when XRP sentiment reached the FUD zone and the token rebounded shortly after. The pattern throughout 2026 has been consistent, with crowd sentiment leading price movements by 24 to 72 hours in either direction, and crowd extremes marking reversals more often than continuations. XRP has primarily traded between $1.37 and $1.60 throughout April. A clean break of either side will determine whether the Rakuten integration marks the beginning of a sustained re-rating or another headline that fades into the chart.