XRP Sentiment Falls to Extreme Fear After January Pullback

Beincrypto reports that XRP retail sentiment plunged into the "Extreme Fear" zone after a sharp January price correction that pushed the token below $2, about a 19% decline from its January 5, 2026 peak. Santiment’s Positive/Negative Sentiment metric swung from greed to extreme fear in a week, and Santiment noted that "Historically, this high level of bearish commentary leads to rallies.

Prices move the opposite to retails' expectations more often than not," while also warning that rapid retail instability typically does not support a sustained uptrend. Market data from CryptoQuant shows negative funding rates in perpetual futures—meaning shorts were paying longs—which the provider says has appeared twice since 2024, during August–September 2024 and April 2025.

CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost said, "Historically, the market tends to move against a late consensus. The accumulation of shorts creates short-term selling pressure, but it also builds latent buying pressure. If prices begin to rise, these positions could be liquidated, fueling the upward move." On January 21, 2026, Binance listed an XRP/RLUSD trading pair; Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse expressed optimism about the move.

Key Topics

Crypto, Xrp, Santiment, Cryptoquant, Binance, Brad Garlinghouse