Brandt vs Laresca: A $535K Bet on XRP's True Worth

Peter Brandt, a Wall Street veteran of 45 years, has been making waves in the crypto space by calling XRP (CRYPTO:XRP) bulls 'easily baited' traders. However, Thomas Laresca, a former Wall Street trader and vocal XRP advocate, challenged Brandt to put his money where his mouth is.

Laresca offered Brandt 100,000 XRP ($108,000 today), then increased it to 500,000 XRP ($535,000 today) after Brandt declined. Laresca's argument was that price predictions cost nothing to make, but backing them with money is the hard part.

Brandt has been trading since 1975 and has a record of calling Bitcoin (BTC) to $280,000, then $25,000, and back to $250,000 in about a year. However, when it comes to XRP, he has flip-flopped between shorting and bullish calls.

Laresca's objection is not with the price of XRP but rather with Brandt going after XRP holders. Laresca points out that Ripple is building something serious underneath XRP, including assembling institutional finance in one place through its acquisitions and investments.