XRP tokens linked to Ripple have seen a resurgence in positive discussions on social media, a phenomenon that has historically preceded a reversal in price. On April 29, the ratio of positive to negative sentiment regarding XRP on social media spiked into what Santiment refers to as the "frenzy 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. According to Santiment, sentiment ratios above the frenzy line indicate that the majority of social media commentary is overwhelmingly positive, which is treated as a contrarian signal.
Historically, when social media discussions reach these levels, the price of the token tends to consolidate or correct in the following days as the buyers driving the social wave exhaust their demand. The recent integration of XRP with Rakuten Pay, allowing users to convert their points into XRP, has contributed to the asset's second-highest bullish sentiment on social media in the past two years.
The trigger for this surge appears to be the Rakuten Pay integration, which was launched in early April and added XRP as a payment method across the Japanese wallet application's ecosystem. This deal enables an estimated 44 million Rakuten users to spend XRP at over 5 million merchant locations, trade it within the Rakuten Pay app, and convert their Rakuten points directly into XRP. The announcement was hailed 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. Despite the social media buzz, XRP traded at $1.37 on Thursday, down 2.1% over 24 hours and 3.7% on the week.
Santiment also identified March 29 as the previous "buy the dip" window, when XRP sentiment hit the fear, uncertainty, and doubt zone and the token bounced shortly after. The pattern in 2026 has been consistent, with crowd sentiment leading price by 24 to 72 hours in either direction, and crowd extremes marking reversals more often than continuations. XRP has spent most of April trading between $1.37 and $1.60.
A clean break of either side will determine whether the Rakuten integration marks the start of a sustained re-rating or another headline that fades into the chart.