Ripple-linked token zooms to FOMO levels on Japan’s Rakuten partnership

Ripple-linked xrp tokens are back in positive social media chatter in a historically contrarian price signal.

The token’s positive-to-negative sentiment ratio on social media spiked into what Santiment calls the “FOMO zone” on April 29, hitting 3.9 on the firm’s tracker, per data shared on X. The reading is the highest since March 19, when a similar spike preceded a sharp pullback.

Sentiment ratios above the FOMO line indicate that crowd commentary is overwhelmingly positive, which Santiment treats as a contrarian signal. Historically, when retail chatter hits these levels, the token tends to consolidate or correct in the days that follow as the buyers driving the social wave run out of fresh demand.

The trigger appears to be the Rakuten Pay integration that went live in the first week of April, which added XRP as a payment method across the major Japanese wallet application’s ecosystem. The deal an estimated 44 million Rakuten users spend XRP at over 5 million merchant locations, spot trade it inside the Rakuten Pay app, and convert their Rakuten points, of which 3 trillion are in circulation worth roughly $23 billion, directly into XRP.

That announcement was framed 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 building gradually 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 social heat.

Santiment also flagged 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, as crowd sentiment leads price by 24 to 72 hours in either direction, and crowd extremes have marked reversals more often than continuations.

XRP has spent most of April between $1.37 and $1.60. A clean break of either side resolves whether the Rakuten integration is the start of a sustained re-rating or another headline that fades into the chart.