Crypto: Santiment detects unprecedented pessimism around XRP for eight months

As XRP goes through a period of disillusionment, with investor enthusiasm waning, a metric monitored by analysts has just reached a level rarely seen in recent months. According to some observers, this climate of pessimism could recall configurations already seen before several phases of recovery of the token associated with Ripple.

Pessimism around XRP reaches a level not seen in eight months

According to on-chain analysis company Santiment, investor sentiment towards XRP has deteriorated sharply. Its indicator “Weighted feeling”which combines the ratio between positive and negative posts and the overall volume of discussions devoted to an asset, fell to -0.908 on Thursday.

This is the lowest level recorded since October 2025 and the lowest since the start of the year. At the same time, XRP was trading at $1.13 on Friday, up 2.3% on the day, but still far from the levels above $2.40 seen in January.

Some figures illustrate the extent of the disengagement observed:

• -0.908 for Santiment's weighted sentiment indicator;
• 1.13 dollars for the price of XRP currently;
• +2.3% over the last 24 hours;
• A price still almost 69% lower than the peak reached in July;
• A feeling at its lowest since October 2025.

According to Santiment, this investor depression goes beyond the question of price. In a post relayed on X, the company explains that “Price is only part of the equation” and that many traders have “tired of waiting for activity after years of anticipation”. Expectations linked to promises of institutional adoption would have gradually given way to fatigue and skepticism.

Some investors seem to have lowered their ambitions or diverted their attention to other assets in the market. Santiment emphasizes, however, that such disinterest is not necessarily trivial. The firm notes that several of XRP's largest rallies occurred as discussion volume dropped sharply and comments became overwhelmingly negative, a scenario that partly resembles the current situation.

The American regulatory framework could reshuffle the cards

As market sentiment deteriorates, the regulatory environment for XRP continues to evolve in the United States. In May, after being voted on by the US Senate Banking Committee, the Clarity Act took an important step forward. The text notably plans to place XRP among the digital raw materials placed under the supervision of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). It would also include in federal law certain regulatory guidelines that the agency had already established in March.

This progress was welcomed by the Managing Director of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse. He called the development a “moment” for the crypto industry, saying the sector deserved “the same rules and protections as all other asset classes.” Beyond the regulatory issue, several players in the financial sector are already anticipating the potential consequences of such a change.

This is particularly what Standard Chartered thinks, which estimates that XRP spot ETFs listed in the United States could accommodate 4 to 8 billion dollars in additional flows, if the text were adopted. These products have already accumulated approximately $1.4 billion in revenue since January. This vision is in sharp contrast to the atmosphere of discouragement that characterizes discussions on XRP today.

XRP Ledger accumulates records despite price drop

One of the most important elements noted by Santiment is the divergence between market behavior and actual network activity. Although the crypto price remains well below its previous peaks, this year many indicators on the XRP Ledger have reached record highs. The number of transactions processed on blockchain, automated market maker (AMM) activity, and the volume of tokenized real assets have all soared to new records.

We also find this dynamic in the initiatives developed around the network. An experiment involving Ondo, JPMorgan's Kinexys, Mastercard and Ripple is among the projects cited. This pilot enabled the settlement of tokenized treasury bills on the XRP Ledger in just a few seconds. For Santiment, this series of developments shows a growing gap between what investors think and the actual evolution of the ecosystem. Development activity, registry usage, and products for institutional investors continue to grow, while enthusiasm on social media continues to decline.

This contrast is today one of the main subjects of observation around XRP. Santiment points out, however, that a sentiment indicator remains a contrarian tool and not a means of precisely predicting a market turnaround. The current signal above all indicates that the most critical investors have largely stopped making themselves heard. Future demand remains the central question.

If new capital is attracted by regulatory advances, ETF prospects and growing activity on the XRP Ledger, the current pessimism could correspond to a phase of market exhaustion. Conversely, if this demand is slow to materialize, the gap between the technological progress of the network and the performance of the token could continue to raise questions among investors.