Senate Panel Advances CLARITY Act, XRP Surpasses $1.50

The Senate Banking Committee’s move on Thursday sent a clear political signal — and it briefly lit a fire under XRP. In a 15-9 vote the committee advanced the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act), one of Washington’s most consequential bills aimed at crypto market structure. XRP jumped above $1.50 after the news, gaining about 5% over 24 hours and 7.6% on the week — outpacing major tokens such as bitcoin and ether, which were each up less than 3% for the week. Why XRP reacted more strongly than other tokens XRP has long been one of the crypto market’s most directly affected assets when it comes to U.S. regulatory uncertainty. The SEC’s 2020 lawsuit against Ripple set off years of exchange suspensions, institutional caution and legal noise over whether XRP constitutes a security. A 2023 decision by Judge Analisa Torres narrowed the SEC’s case by clearing secondary-market XRP trading from securities treatment, but many institutional players have remained wary without a clear federal framework. What the CLARITY Act would change The CLARITY Act aims to create that framework. It would bring more digital assets under a defined market-structure regime and clarify rules for custody, trading, market making and ETF allocation — the kinds of guardrails big allocators typically demand. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse called the committee vote “the moment,” arguing on X that the industry deserves “the same rules and protections as every other asset class.” Where the bill goes from here The committee’s approval is meaningful but not decisive. The Senate Banking version must be reconciled with a version from the Agriculture Committee, pass the full Senate, survive House reconciliation and reach the president’s desk. Senator Cynthia Lummis said lawmakers have agreement on most of the text; Senator Elizabeth Warren has objected to parts of the process. With Congress heading into the Memorial Day recess, proponents face a practical deadline to keep momentum. On-chain and institutional signals piling up The regulatory optimism comes alongside concrete developments that investors point to as fundamental wins for XRP and Ripple: - The XRP Ledger has seen increased activity and now hosts over $3 billion in tokenized real-world assets, putting it among the leading non-Ethereum networks for institutional tokenization. - A pilot with Ripple, JPMorgan, Mastercard and Ondo Finance reportedly processed a tokenized U.S. Treasury redemption in under five seconds, showcasing an ability to bridge public blockchain rails with traditional interbank settlement. - DeFi activity tied to XRP through bridged representations has grown to about $560 million in total value locked, led by projects such as Flare and Doppler Finance. - U.S.-listed spot XRP ETFs recorded $25.8 million in net inflows earlier this week — their biggest daily haul since January — bringing cumulative inflows to $1.35 billion. - Ripple recently closed a $200 million debt facility for its Ripple Prime brokerage, another sign of institutional traction. Industry voices interpret these signals as more than a short-term pump. Alexis Sirkia, an early Ripple and Ethereum market maker who now runs decentralized clearing firm Yellow Network, told CoinDes that “the real story of XRP in mid-2026 will not be its consolidating price, but the quiet, almost imperceptible rewiring of global finance,” adding that the ledger is evolving into “a compliance-grade tokenization and settlement layer” attractive to institutional capital. Still, legal clarity — not headlines — will likely determine the next sustained leg up Despite the committee vote and recent commercial wins, XRP remains well below its 2025 highs. The $1.50 area is a key level bulls must decisively reclaim to build momentum. The CLARITY Act gave XRP a near-term catalyst, but most market participants will view full federal legal clarity — a final, durable ruleset approved by Congress and signed into law — as the prerequisite for a true, long-lasting bull run.