XRP tokens linked to Ripple have regained positive traction on social media, forming a historically contrarian signal for prices. On April 29, the token's sentiment ratio on social media spiked into what Santiment refers to as the 'frenzy zone', 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. According to Santiment, sentiment ratios above the frenzy line indicate overwhelmingly positive crowd commentary, which is treated 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.
Partially driven by the integration of XRP with Rakuten, which allows points to be converted 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, traded within the Rakuten Pay app, and converted from 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 went live in early 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 traded at $1.37 on Thursday, down 2.1% over 24 hours and 3.7% on the week, despite the intense social media activity. Santiment also identified March 29 as the previous 'buy the dip' window, when XRP sentiment hit the fear zone and the token bounced shortly after.
The pattern throughout 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 fluctuating between $1.37 and $1.60. 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.