Rakuten's Embrace of XRP Sparks Uptrend, Fueling Investor Optimism to Highest Level Since 2021

Table of Contents XRP currently trades at $1.3764 with a modest 0.66% gain on May 1, positioned precisely at the convergence point of a narrowing symmetrical triangle formation. Market sentiment has climbed to its strongest reading in 24 months, fueled by a significant partnership announcement with Rakuten Wallet, a leading Japanese payment platform. The partnership announcement from Ripple revealed that Rakuten’s massive user base of 44 million individuals can now seamlessly convert their loyalty rewards — representing more than $23 billion in total value — into XRP. The integration allows users to execute trades within the application and utilize their XRP holdings at more than 5 million participating merchants via the Rakuten Pay platform. Starting today, @Rakuten_Wallet users in Japan can convert @Rakuten Points into XRP, spot trade in-app, and spend across 5M+ merchant locations. 🇯🇵 With 44 million Rakuten Pay users and $23B in loyalty points now redeemable for XRP, this is one of the largest retail deployments… pic.twitter.com/P7I52bGjVL — RippleX (@RippleXDev) April 30, 2026 Ripple characterized the development as “one of the largest retail deployments of XRP as a payment method to date.” The announcement triggered a 2% price increase over the following 24-hour period, though XRP continues trading 62% beneath its multi-year peak of $3.66 established in July 2025. Market analyst John Squire responded to the Rakuten development on X, stating: “Buy $XRP with points. Spend it across millions of merchants in Japan. This is what mass adoption looks like.” His commentary resonated widely throughout crypto-focused social media channels in the wake of the announcement. Analytics provider Santiment documented that XRP’s sentiment metric climbed to 3.9 on its Positive/Negative measurement scale — a threshold not witnessed since early 2024. This represents a 240% elevation from the 1.135 reading documented on March 29, which followed a 20% price decline. 🥳 In part due to the new integration of XRP with Rakuten, allowing points to being converted into $XRP, the asset is seeing its 2nd highest bullish sentiment across social media in the past 2 years! Traders are showing excitement over the fact that the #4 market cap in crypto… https://t.co/9JqJV2leBE pic.twitter.com/CXvfJ2KZW9 — Santiment Intelligence (@SantimentData) April 30, 2026 Santiment observed that such announcements “doesn’t often instantly lead to major price outbreaks,” noting that favorable price movements generally materialize after the initial wave of FOMO subsides. The symmetrical triangle visible on daily timeframes has been developing since February’s bottom at $1.11. The pattern’s upper and lower trendlines are now merging at present price levels, indicating an imminent directional resolution. Chartist Ali Charts shared on X that XRP is currently “coiling” within the triangle structure and that a validated breakout could generate a 26% price movement. He pinpointed $1.35 as the support threshold and $1.45 as resistance, labeling the area between them as a “no-trade zone.” A daily candle closing above $1.45 projects toward $1.82, whereas a close beneath $1.35 points to $1.00. $XRP is getting ready for a breakout! XRP is currently consolidating within a well-defined symmetrical triangle on the daily chart. As the price moves closer to the apex, market energy is coiling, signaling that a significant shift in volatility is approaching. By measuring the… pic.twitter.com/77YTlE5Y5t — Ali Charts (@alicharts) May 2, 2026 Roughly 2 billion XRP tokens are currently held by market participants at an average acquisition cost between $1.40–$1.45, based on Glassnode’s cost-basis analysis. This accumulation zone generates organic selling pressure within that price range. The MACD histogram is exhibiting a bullish crossover precisely at the triangle’s apex — representing its most favorable configuration since March. The Parabolic SAR indicator currently registers at $1.4606, establishing the initial overhead resistance level. Polymarket prediction contracts currently assign a 34% likelihood that XRP concludes today’s session at $1.40, with a 28% probability for a $1.35 close. The probability of closing above $1.45 remains at 2% or lower. During the XRP Las Vegas conference on April 30, Ripple’s CTO emeritus David Schwartz directly addressed the widely-discussed $10,000 XRP price hypothesis. He argued that if rational market participants genuinely assigned even a 1% probability to such an outcome materializing within a decade, the current price would already exceed $20. Schwartz emphasized that markets efficiently price in collective expectations, and existing valuations reflect actual market conviction. The XRP Las Vegas event also featured the official announcement of the Ripple-OKX strategic partnership and the listing of Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin product. A standard measured-move projection from the triangle formation indicates potential upside toward $1.55–$1.60, corresponding to the previous range highs established during March.