XRP tokens, linked to Ripple, have seen a resurgence in positive discussions on social media, a trend that has often preceded a price correction in the past. The token's positive-to-negative sentiment ratio spiked into the FOMO zone on April 29, reaching 3.9 on Santiment's tracker, the highest level since March 19. This spike was followed by a sharp decline in the token's price.
Historically, when social media sentiment reaches these levels, the token tends to consolidate or correct as demand from buyers driving the social wave dries up. The recent integration of XRP with Rakuten Pay, allowing users to convert points into XRP, has contributed to the asset's second-highest bullish sentiment on social media in the past two years. Traders are excited about the potential of XRP, now a payment method across Rakuten's ecosystem, with an estimated 44 million users able to spend XRP at over 5 million merchant locations. The announcement was hailed as a significant milestone by Ripple's senior ecosystem growth manager, Tatsuya Kohrogi.
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 data also shows that crowd sentiment leads price movements by 24 to 72 hours, and extreme sentiment levels often mark reversals rather than continuations.
XRP has been trading between $1.37 and $1.60 for most of April, and a clean break of either side will determine whether the Rakuten integration is the start of a sustained price increase or just another headline that fades away.