The XRP token has regained traction in social media discussions, exhibiting a contrarian price signal. On April 29, the token's positive-to-negative sentiment ratio surged into the FOMO zone, reaching 3.9 on Santiment's tracker, the highest level since March 19, when a similar spike was followed by a sharp decline. Sentiment ratios above the FOMO line indicate overwhelmingly positive crowd commentary, 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 excited about the prospect of an estimated 44 million Rakuten users utilizing XRP at over 5 million merchant locations, trading it within the Rakuten Pay app, and converting their Rakuten points directly into XRP. The announcement was hailed by Ripple's senior ecosystem growth manager Tatsuya Kohrogi as a significant XRP milestone.
The market took two weeks to fully process the implications, with sentiment building gradually before spiking this week. Despite the social hype, XRP traded at $1.37 on Thursday, down 2.1% over 24 hours and 3.7% on the week. Santiment also identified March 29 as the prior buy the dip window, when XRP sentiment hit the FUD zone and the token bounced shortly after.
The pattern through 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 between $1.37 and $1.60, and 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.