A Setup the Market Has Seen BeforeXRP is back in that uncomfortable, familiar zone where price feels heavy, timelines turn toxic, and confidence evaporates fast. According to Santiment, social sentiment around XRP has officially slipped into “Extreme Fear” after a roughly 19% pullback from its early-January peak. And if history is any guide, that’s exactly when markets tend to do the opposite of what retail expects.Santiment’s data shows small traders turning sharply bearish after XRP’s drop from the $2.40 area, a behavioral pattern that has repeatedly appeared near local bottoms. The logic is simple but brutal: by the time fear dominates social feeds, most sellers have already sold. What’s left is thin liquidity, exhausted downside momentum, and the conditions for a reflexive bounce.Looking at the January sequence, the sentiment signals weren’t random noise. A Jan. 2 “buy” signal preceded XRP’s explosive run toward $2.42 just days later. A Jan. 7 “sell” signal aligned almost perfectly with the post-spike distribution phase. Later signals were messier some early, some late but the broader rhythm held: extreme emotions clustered near inflection points.That’s the key takeaway. Sentiment is not a timing tool — it’s a context tool. Extreme fear doesn’t guarantee an immediate reversal. Markets can stay irrational longer than traders stay solvent. XRP’s late-January “buy” signals showed that risk clearly, arriving before price fully flushed toward the $1.87 area.Still, the current setup matters. XRP has bounced modestly off recent lows, and pessimism is already saturated across social channels. From a contrarian lens, that reduces marginal selling pressure. If broader market conditions stabilize, even slightly, XRP doesn’t need euphoria to move higher it just needs fear to stop getting worse.In crypto, extremes rarely last forever. When everyone agrees it’s over, that’s usually when the chart starts arguing back.#xrp $XRP