XRP Dips Despite Rakuten Points Integration and ETF Inflows; Technicals Signal Mixed Outlook

XRP traded around $1.37 after sliding more than 4% over the week and recording four straight losing sessions; Thursday also saw $5.83 million exit from U.S.-based XRP spot ETFs. Broader fund-flow reporting shows XRP spot ETFs leading inflows at times, highlighting divergent short-term moves across products and days ^{[1] [2]}.

Rakuten Wallet officially rolled out XRP spot trading and payment capabilities on April 30, linking XRP to roughly 44 million Rakuten Pay active users and about $23 billion in loyalty points by enabling direct conversion between Rakuten Points and XRP. Coverage noted that a proposed Japanese crypto tax cut could make the Rakuten feature more attractive to consumers if enacted ^{[1] [3]}.

Technical views are mixed: one analyst says XRP appears to be forming a multi-year structural pattern that could resemble its 2017 run, while short-term charts show resistance in the $1.376–$1.383 area and price trading below the 100-hour simple moving average, suggesting sellers could regain control if those levels hold. On-chain and market-structure analysis indicates leverage has been reduced during consolidation, and derivatives data show a modest 1.03 long-to-short ratio, pointing to limited bullish conviction among traders ^{[4] [5] [6] [1]}.

In sum, integration with Rakuten and episodic ETF interest coexist with weak short-term price action and technical resistance, producing mixed signals for XRP’s near-term outlook ^{[1] [4] [5] [3] [2] [6]}.