Edo Farina, founder of Alpha Lions Academy and a long-time XRP advocate, has rejected veteran trader Peter Brandt’s latest criticism of the token, arguing that Brandt is assessing XRP as a payment currency while holders treat it as a scarce asset underpinning financial infrastructure, Coinpedia reported.
Farina’s sharpest objection, in comments given to Coinpedia published on Oct. 1, 2026, centred on Brandt’s comparison of XRP with the US dollar. Farina said the Federal Reserve can expand dollar supply through monetary policy, while XRP’s total supply is capped at 100 billion tokens and a small amount is permanently burned as a fee on every transaction.
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Key facts
- Farina told Coinpedia that “if usage of XRP for settlement increases, the protocol cannot simply create another 100 billion XRP to accommodate that demand.”
- Brandt has described XRP’s backers as cult-like and called the token a “fool coin.”
- In the same period, Brandt has projected an XRP move to $5.40.
- Brandt told Cointelegraph he expects Bitcoin to peak between $300,000 and $600,000 in late 2029.
- XRP has a fixed supply of 100 billion tokens, with a small amount permanently burned as a transaction fee.
Payments utility versus ownership
Brandt’s core argument, as Farina describes it, is that being useful for payments does not make an asset rise in value. Brandt accepted that XRP can move money cheaply but questioned whether that makes the token valuable, pointing to its large supply — a position he has held across repeated public comments.
Farina framed the disagreement as one about what holding XRP actually represents. In his view, holders own part of the protocol that moves value rather than merely using a service. He contrasted that with cross-border banking, which relies on correspondent banks, prefunded accounts, several ledgers and layers of fees, saying “basically, the banks control the rails.”
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He described XRP as a neutral bridge asset that does not favour any single currency, country or institution, adding that “that neutrality isn’t merely a feature of XRP, but the foundation of its entire value proposition.” Farina also called the comparison between XRP and the dollar “outrageous.”
Charts against fundamentals
Farina pointed to what he sees as a contradiction in Brandt’s position: Brandt dismisses XRP’s fundamentals, he said, yet his own chart work points to a price of $5.40. “Arbitrary lines drawn by a random person on a chart are very different from fundamentals,” Farina said, adding, “Peter Brandt doesn’t understand the XRP Liquidity Model.”
Brandt, however, is sceptical of headline-driven explanations for price moves in general. In a Cointelegraph interview published Sept. 29, 2026, he said: “Markets do something, traders need to create a narrative. More often than not, the narrative is at least partially wrong,” before adding, “Let price be king.”
Cointelegraph reported that Ether and Solana receive a warmer reception from Brandt, with room for both alongside Bitcoin in his suggested portfolio allocations. For financially secure investors he suggests a crypto allocation of up to 10%, with Bitcoin taking the largest share. XRP, by contrast, falls into the category he warns against — “Don’t be sold on the new upstarts, don’t be conned into the latest fast horse in the game,” he said.
Why it matters
The exchange puts two competing frameworks for valuing XRP side by side. Brandt, a chart-based trader, argues that transactional usefulness alone does not confer value and counsels Bitcoin-dominated allocations. Farina, an XRP advocate, argues that a fixed 100 billion supply combined with growing settlement demand is the token’s investment case — a supply cap that has been a fixed feature of the network since its launch, in contrast to fiat currencies that central banks can expand.
The dispute also highlights how XRP holders and technical analysts have diverged on how to judge the asset, with Farina’s criticism landing just days after Brandt restated his views.
What to watch
Whether XRP approaches the $5.40 level Brandt has projected — and whether Bitcoin reaches the early-October pullback toward $65,000 or $66,000 he flagged as a buying opportunity — will shape how both arguments are judged. Brandt said he expects the next Bitcoin bull cycle to peak between $300,000 and $600,000 in late 2029.
This article is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency markets are volatile and uncertain, and price forecasts may not be realised.
Sources: Coinpedia, Cointelegraph
