XRP's vibe check hits rock bottom — historically, the token's comeback tour starts here 🪙

Social media sentiment around XRP has fallen to its weakest reading this year, sliding to minus 0.908 on Thursday according to onchain analytics firm Santiment's weighted sentiment gauge, which tracks the ratio of positive to negative posts weighted against commentary volume. That marks the lowest level for the metric since October 2025, a threshold the firm has previously flagged as a launchpad for short-term rebounds in the Ripple-linked token. XRP changed hands at $1.14 on Friday, up 2.3% on the day, but still down sharply from January levels above $2.40 and approximately 69% below its July 2025 high.

The downturn in crowd enthusiasm has arrived even as the underlying network and policy backdrop have continued to strengthen. In May, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee advanced the Clarity Act, legislation that would classify XRP as a digital commodity under Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversight and codify the agency's March guidance into federal law. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse described the development as "the moment" for the industry, adding that the sector deserved "the same rules and protections as every other asset class." Standard Chartered has projected $4 billion to $8 billion in additional inflows into U.S. spot XRP exchange-traded funds if the bill passes; existing products have attracted roughly $1.4 billion since January, according to SoSoValue data.

On-chain activity on the XRP Ledger has followed a similar divergence. Payment counts, automated market maker activity and tokenized real-world asset deployments have all reached record levels this year, even as the token's price continued to decline. Recent pilot programs include a project involving Ondo, JPMorgan's Kinexys, Mastercard and Ripple that settled tokenized Treasuries across the ledger in seconds. Santiment noted the same pattern in its commentary, pointing to rising development activity, ledger usage and institutional product expansion alongside fading social enthusiasm.

Santiment attributed the souring mood in part to trader fatigue after years of waiting for resolution around Ripple's legal position and broader institutional adoption, saying many market participants have moved on or trimmed their expectations. The firm also observed that some of XRP's strongest historical rebounds began when crowd sentiment was at its most negative, a setup it said resembles the current readings.