Social-media investor sentiment around XRP has recently risen to its second-highest level in the past 2 years, but the price remains stuck in a range as it is blocked by resistance at $1.40 to $1.45.

On May 1 (local time), blockchain media outlet Cointelegraph reported that news of a linkage with Japan’s payment platform Rakuten Wallet lifted investor sentiment.

With the linkage, 44 million Rakuten users can convert reward points into XRP. Users can trade XRP in the app and use it at more than 5 million merchants via Rakuten Pay. Ripple said it was one of the largest retail implementations among cases of adopting XRP as a means of payment.

Santiment analysed that social-media optimism for XRP is at its second-highest level in the past 2 years. An indicator showing the ratio of positive to negative mentions stood at 3.9. That is at the level of early 2024 and is more than 240 percent higher than 1.135 on March 29.

Price reaction was limited. XRP rose 2 percent over the past 24 hours, but it is still 62 percent below the $3.66 peak recorded in July 2025. After rebounding about 18 percent from the $1.27 low on April 5, it climbed to $1.48, but the uptrend stalled in that zone.

The $1.40 to $1.45 range is also seen as a key technical resistance area. In that band, the 50-day exponential moving average, the 100-day simple moving average and the upper trendline of a symmetrical triangle overlap. On-chain data also shows about 2 billion XRP clustered at an average of $1.40 to $1.45, raising the possibility that buying in that zone could turn into selling pressure.

If it breaks through that supply zone, the measured target of the symmetrical triangle, $2.10, could open up. Chart analyst Chartnerd saw that a major move in XRP could follow if resistance above $1.40 is cleared.

The case shows that the rise in XRP investor sentiment was driven not just by expectations but by an actual expansion in payment and points usage. Still, the market price did not move immediately on adoption news alone, leaving the next inflection point as whether it can clear the key resistance zone.