Data shows the XRP social media sentiment has dropped to its third-worst level in the past two years, a sign that the crowd has turned bearish on the asset. XRP Positive/Negative Sentiment Has Declined Recently According to data from on-chain analytics firm Santiment, the Positive/Negative Sentiment has plummeted for XRP. This indicator tells us about how the degree of positive sentiment surrounding a given asset compares to that of the negative one on major social media platforms. Related Reading: Bitcoin Surges To $72,000, But Remains Stuck In Key Supply Zone The metric works by filtering for social media posts/threads/messages containing mentions of the asset and putting them through a machine-learning algorithm to separate between bullish and bearish comments. Then, it counts up the number of each and finds their ratio. Now, here is the chart shared by Santiment that shows the trend in the Positive/Negative Sentiment for XRP over the last couple of years: As displayed in the above graph, the XRP Positive/Negative Sentiment shot up to high levels in December and January, implying that social media users became optimistic about a market turnaround following a pause in the bearish momentum. This optimism, however, didn’t pay off as the price drawdown picked back up at the end of January. While sentiment initially deteriorated after this decline, the dominance of positive posts returned again, although to a notably lower degree than the earlier highs. This suggests that social media users still didn’t entirely turn bearish about the cryptocurrency. That is, until the past week rolled around. From the chart, it’s visible that the Positive/Negative Sentiment has plummeted for XRP, a potential sign that the drawn-out consolidation has finally broken trader conviction. Currently, the metric is sitting at 1.02, which suggests that there are about as many positive posts related to the asset as negative ones. While this still doesn’t signal an outright shift to a bearish dominance, it’s still a pretty low level when compared to the last two years. “According to our weekly social data for crypto’s #4 market cap, FUD is at its 3rd highest point in the past 2 years,” noted the analytics firm. The two instances in this window where a bearish mentality was more dominant occurred in February and October of last year. Both of these led to price rebounds. This is actually a pattern that has been witnessed time and again in digital asset markets: prices often move against the expectations of the majority. Related Reading: Top Toncoin Whales Silently Accumulate 189,730 TON Despite Market Weakness The effect tends to be the strongest inside the “FUD” and “FOMO” zones highlighted by Santiment in the chart. The latest decline in the Positive/Negative Sentiment has taken XRP into the former of the two regions. “Historically, when bullish comments get replaced by this level of bearish ones, the probability of a relief rally climbs significantly higher,” explained the analytics firm. XRP Price At the time of writing, XRP is floating around $1.32, down 1% in the last seven days. Featured image from Dall-E, chart from TradingView.com
Data shows users on social media are the most bearish toward XRP in six months, a potential setup for a contrarian move in the asset. XRP Positive/Negative Sentiment Has Plunged Recently According to data from analytics firm Santiment, social media FUD around XRP has seen a spike recently. The indicator of relevance here is the “Positive/Negative Sentiment,” which tells us about how the bullish and bearish sentiments related to the coin compare on the major social media platforms. The metric works by first going through posts/messages/threads on these platforms to separate those that contain mentions of the asset. It then puts them through a machine-learning model to divide between positive and negative comments. Finally, it takes the ratio between the counts of each category to find the net situation. Related Reading: Bitcoin Spot Volume Rebounds As Price Hits ATH, But Still Far Below Late-2024 Highs Now, here is the chart shared by Santiment that shows the trend in the Positive/Negative Sentiment for XRP over the past month: As displayed in the above graph, the XRP Positive/Negative Sentiment fell to a low of 0.74 a couple of days back, implying bearish comments were notably outpacing bullish ones. The metric followed up with some recovery, but it lasted only briefly as the latest value has again indicated a dominant negative sentiment, with the ratio standing at 0.86. This latest wave of FUD around the asset on social media is the strongest since six months ago, when Donald Trump’s tariffs shook the market. If history is anything to go by, though, the bearish sentiment among retail traders could actually turn out to be a positive for the cryptocurrency. Digital assets have often tended to move in a way that goes contrary to the expectations of the crowd. This means that when the investors are overly bearish, a bottom can become probable. Given that social media users have been fearful toward XRP for two out of the last three days, it’s possible that a contrarian signal could once again be brewing for it. It now remains to be seen how the asset’s trajectory will look in the coming days, and whether social media sentiment will play a part. Related Reading: Bitcoin, Ethereum Lead Record $5.95 Billion Inflows Into Crypto Funds In the scenario that XRP does rebound from here, a technical challenge could be waiting for it, as explained by analyst Ali Martinez in an X post. As is visible in the chart shared by Martinez, XRP has potentially been stuck inside a Parallel Channel on the 4-hour timeframe during the last couple of months. The upper boundary of the channel lies at $3.15, which has proven to be a resistance barrier for the coin in this period. “A breakout here could trigger a rally to $3.60!” says the analyst. XRP Price At the time of writing, XRP is floating around $2.97, up over 4% in the last seven days. Featured image from Dall-E, Santiment.net, charts from TradingView.com
In a video released on Thursday, crypto commentator Zach Rector dismantled a viral claim—popularized by influencer Jake Clover—that XRP tokens are secretly changing hands for $100,000 apiece inside clandestine “dark pools.” Rector’s rebuttal aims to calm newcomers spooked by the rumor and to re-center the discussion on verifiable market mechanics rather than conspiratorial price-suppression narratives. XRP OTC Deals Aren’t Market Manipulation Rector opens the broadcast by calling the thesis “a new round of misinformation and FUD,” stressing that “institutions are [not] going to get XRP at $100,000 on the private ledger. That’s not happening.” He explains that what social-media accounts now label “dark pools” are simply over-the-counter (OTC) desks—private bilateral venues that large holders have used for decades in equities, foreign exchange and, more recently, digital assets. “It’s nothing new or specific to XRP,” he says, adding that Ripple Labs has been off-loading part of its treasury via OTC since 2019 without depressing the open-market price. Indeed, XRP has “pumped tremendously since November,” Rector notes, even as Ripple distributed fresh supply to institutional counterparties. Much of Clover’s allegation hinges on the idea that a separate, private version of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) carries its own price—orders of magnitude above the public market’s. Rector calls that notion a fundamental misunderstanding of how Ripple’s enterprise tooling works. Central-bank or government pilots often ask for “private ledgers where they can keep messaging and transactions hidden from the public view,” he acknowledges, but those environments are permissioned sidechains or wrapped derivatives. “XRP only exists on the public XRP Ledger that we all use […]. Your XRP can never leave the XRP Ledger,” he states. If testers wanted to model a six-figure price for stress-testing purposes, “that’s not the real XRP, never was, never would be.” To underscore the point, Rector cites Ripple chief technology officer David Schwartz, who “has already addressed this” and clarified that “there are not two prices of XRP.” Rector also invokes examples from other enterprise-focused chains—XDC’s hybrid architecture and Constellation’s Department of Defense “Metagraph” deployment—to show that privacy partitions are standard practice, not evidence of hidden liquidity at surreal valuations. OTC Buyers Get A Discount While some retail traders fear that Wall Street would happily pay an astronomical premium behind closed doors, Rector argues the economics are inverted: “Why would an institution pay $10,000 per XRP on the private ledger […] when it’s available on the public market for $2?” OTC desks exist precisely so that whales can accumulate “without moving the market,” not to overpay. In fact, history shows that Ripple has often granted institutional partners a discount, not a markup—something revealed in discovery during the SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit. Rector reminds viewers that Ripple’s data set includes “over 1,700 NDAs” and that R3 once negotiated an option to buy five billion XRP “for a sub-penny” over three years, ultimately settling for a single billion when the broader partnership soured. None of those figures approach the six-figure fantasy. At press time, XRP traded at $2.21. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com