Ripple CEO pushes CLARITY Act as Senate stands 1 yard from passage

Ripple Chief Executive Officer Brad Garlinghouse urged the U.S. Congress to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a bill that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said is on the Senate's "one-yard line" for passage. The legislation would establish a federal framework for classifying digital assets as securities or commodities.

"We need the CLARITY Act to provide the regulatory framework that the digital asset industry has been asking for," Garlinghouse said in a statement. Bessent earlier told Fox Business that the legislation is close to a Senate vote, adding that the Trump administration also plans to scrutinize open-source AI models for intellectual property theft.

The CLARITY Act has drawn support from Coinbase Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong and Ripple, both of whom helped shape its provisions. Coinbase shares jumped more than 11% in morning trading after Bessent's comments, while XRP rose 4% to around $1.15, according to CoinGecko data. Mizuho analyst Dan Dolev noted the act could open the door for more institutional competition for stablecoins, potentially commoditizing Circle's USDC.

Passage of the CLARITY Act would mark the most significant U.S. crypto legislation since the industry began lobbying for clear federal rules. For Ripple, which spent three years fighting the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over whether XRP is a security, the bill would provide the legal certainty the company has long sought. The case formally closed in August 2025 after both sides dropped their appeals, with Ripple paying a $125 million fine.

Ripple's Legal Victory Set the Stage

The push for the CLARITY Act follows Ripple's landmark legal victory against the SEC. In July 2023, Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP itself is not a security, though $728.9 million in direct sales to institutions broke securities law. Attorney John Deaton, who represented nearly 4,000 XRP holders as a friend of the court, said the judge cited their sworn affidavits in her decision.

Ripple has since expanded its institutional footprint, announcing a $500 million investment from Fortress, Citadel, Pantera, Galaxy, Brevan Howard, and Marshall Wace at Ripple Swell 2025. The company also announced collaborations with Mastercard, WebBank, and Gemini to use its RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger for settling credit card transactions.

What Passage Would Mean for Crypto Markets

The CLARITY Act would replace the current patchwork of state-level crypto regulations with a single federal standard, clarifying which digital assets fall under SEC versus CFTC oversight. XRP-spot ETF filings from Canary Funds, Bitwise Invest, and Franklin Templeton are pending, with Canary Funds' ETF potentially launching as soon as November 13 if Nasdaq approves its 8-A filing.

XRP traded near $1.08 at press time, down about 3% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data. The token remains well below its all-time high of $3.84 reached in January 2018.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.