The XRP token has regained traction in social media discussions, signaling a potentially contrarian price indicator. On April 29, the token's positive-to-negative sentiment ratio on social media spiked into the FOMO zone, reaching 3.9 on Santiment's tracker, the highest since March 19, when a similar spike preceded a significant price correction. This surge in sentiment ratio indicates that social media commentary is predominantly positive, which Santiment views 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. The recent integration of XRP with Rakuten, 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 enthusiastic about the fact that XRP, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is now integrated with Rakuten Pay, enabling an estimated 44 million users to spend XRP at over 5 million merchant locations, trade it within the app, and convert their Rakuten points, worth approximately $23 billion, directly into XRP.
This development, hailed as a significant milestone by Ripple's senior ecosystem growth manager Tatsuya Kohrogi, has taken two weeks to fully materialize, with sentiment building gradually before spiking this week. Despite the social media hype, XRP traded at $1.37 on Thursday, down 2.1% over 24 hours and 3.7% on the week. Santiment also noted that on March 29, XRP sentiment hit the FUD zone, and the token bounced shortly after, illustrating a consistent pattern in 2026, where crowd sentiment leads price movements by 24 to 72 hours, and crowd extremes often mark reversals rather than continuations.
XRP has primarily traded between $1.37 and $1.60 throughout April, and a clear break of either side will determine whether the Rakuten integration marks the beginning of a sustained re-rating or another fleeting headline.