Senate Banking Committee Advances CLARITY Act, XRP Surges Above $1.50

The Senate Banking Committee’s move on Thursday to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act gave XRP the regulatory headline traders had been waiting for — and a price bump to match. The bill passed the committee in a 15-9 vote, and XRP briefly rallied above $1.50, gaining about 5% over 24 hours and 7.6% on the week. That outpaced major peers such as bitcoin and ether, which added under 3% for the week. Why XRP reacted so strongly XRP’s price has long been driven by U.S. regulatory uncertainty. The SEC sued Ripple in December 2020, triggering exchange suspensions, institutional caution and years of legal noise over whether XRP was a security. A 2023 ruling from Judge Analisa Torres cleared secondary-market XRP trading from being treated as securities transactions, but the market still lacks the federal legislative clarity many institutions demand. What the CLARITY Act would do The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY) aims to put more digital assets into a defined market-structure regime, clarifying rules around custody, trading, market making and ETF eligibility. That framework would make it easier for institutions to allocate capital and operate in U.S. crypto markets without the risk of sudden regulatory reinterpretation. Industry reaction and the legislative road ahead Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse hailed the committee vote as “the moment” in a post on X, saying the industry deserves “the same rules and protections as every other asset class.” But the bill still faces several steps: the Senate Banking version must be reconciled with the Agriculture Committee’s measure, pass the full Senate, survive House reconciliation and reach the president’s desk. Senator Cynthia Lummis has said lawmakers are agreed on most of the bill, while Senator Elizabeth Warren has objected to parts of the process. With the Memorial Day recess approaching, the legislative push has a practical deadline. Fundamentals underpinning XRP’s momentum Beyond the committee vote, several real-world developments have strengthened demand for XRP and Ripple’s institutional product set: - Institutional posture: Ripple closed a $200 million debt facility for its Ripple Prime brokerage earlier this month, signaling institutional confidence. - Tokenized real-world assets: Activity on the XRP Ledger has picked up; tokenized RWAs on the chain have topped $3 billion, placing XRP among the leading non-Ethereum networks for institutional tokenization. - High-profile pilot: A Ripple–JPMorgan–Mastercard–Ondo pilot processed a tokenized U.S. Treasury redemption in under five seconds, highlighting the ledger’s potential to bridge public blockchain rails with traditional interbank settlement. - DeFi and bridges: Bridged representations of XRP have helped grow a broader DeFi ecosystem with more than $560 million in combined value locked, led by projects like Flare and Doppler Finance. - Spot ETF flows: U.S.-listed spot XRP ETFs recorded $25.8 million in net inflows in their largest daily haul since early January, bringing cumulative inflows to $1.35 billion. Market view and outlook Industry voices see the vote as a meaningful catalyst. Alexis Sirkia, an early Ripple and Ethereum market maker who now runs decentralized clearing firm Yellow Network, told CoinDes that the longer-term story is institutional adoption and “the quiet, almost imperceptible rewiring of global finance” around the XRP Ledger. Still, reality-checks remain. XRP is well below its 2025 highs, and the $1.50 area continues to be an important technical level for bulls. The committee vote provided a fresh catalyst, but broad, durable upside likely depends on final passage of federal legislation and the removal of lingering legal and regulatory uncertainty.