XRP tokens linked to Ripple have regained positive traction on social media, a signal that has historically been contrarian to price movements. The ratio of positive to negative sentiment regarding XRP on social media spiked into what Santiment refers to as the 'frenzy zone' on April 29, reaching 3.9 on the firm's tracker. This reading is the highest since March 19, when a similar spike was followed by a sharp decline.
Sentiment ratios above the frenzy line indicate that public commentary is overwhelmingly positive, which Santiment interprets as a contrarian signal. Historically, when retail 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.
The recent integration of XRP with Rakuten, allowing for the conversion of 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 for the #4 market cap in crypto. The trigger for this sentiment appears to be the Rakuten Pay integration, which added XRP as a payment method across the Japanese wallet application's ecosystem, enabling an estimated 44 million Rakuten users to spend XRP at over 5 million merchant locations, trade it within the app, and convert their Rakuten points directly into XRP.
This development 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 grasp the implications, with sentiment gradually building before spiking this week. XRP traded at $1.37 on Thursday, down 2.1% over 24 hours and 3.7% on the week, despite the heightened social media activity. Santiment also noted that on March 29, XRP sentiment hit the fear zone, and the token bounced shortly after, illustrating a consistent pattern where crowd sentiment leads price by 24 to 72 hours in either direction, and crowd extremes have more often marked reversals than continuations. XRP has primarily traded between $1.37 and $1.60 throughout April.
A clear break of either side will determine whether the Rakuten integration marks the start of a sustained revaluation or another headline that fades into the chart.