Tokens linked to Ripple, XRP, have seen a resurgence in positive chatter on social media, a phenomenon that has historically been a contrarian indicator of price movements. The positive-to-negative sentiment ratio on social media spiked into what Santiment refers to as the "FOMO 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 in the token's value. When sentiment ratios exceed the FOMO line, it indicates that the crowd's commentary is overwhelmingly positive, which Santiment interprets as a contrarian signal.
Historically, when social media chatter reaches these levels, the token tends to either 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. This development has excited traders, given that XRP is now the fourth-largest market cap in crypto.
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. 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.
With 3 trillion points in circulation, worth roughly $23 billion, this integration marks a significant milestone for XRP, as framed by Ripple's senior ecosystem growth manager Tatsuya Kohrogi. The market took two weeks to fully process the implications, with sentiment gradually building before spiking this week. Despite the social media frenzy, 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, indicating a pattern where crowd sentiment leads price movements by 24 to 72 hours in either direction, with crowd extremes often marking reversals rather than continuations. Throughout April, XRP has largely traded 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.