XRP investors are approaching one of Washington’s most important crypto votes of the year after Senate Republicans released a revised 630-page CLARITY Act ahead of a Sept. 15 procedural vote.
The updated text adds new requirements for certain DeFi protocols and clarifies how credit unions can conduct digital-asset activities. But the bill still lacks a bipartisan agreement, leaving its path through the Senate uncertain.
Journalist Brendan Pedersen, who obtained the draft, reported that Democratic skepticism remains high. One Democratic aide described the unresolved ethics issue as the “biggest stumbling block by far,” arguing that the latest proposal does not address those concerns.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis separately confirmed that the updated legislation will go before the Senate on Sept. 15. The revisions include CFTC registration requirements for certain protocols that are decentralized in name but retain meaningful centralized control.
Why the Vote Matters to Ripple and XRP
For XRP, the vote is less about determining whether XRP itself is suddenly a security or commodity and more about establishing the broader rules under which U.S. crypto markets operate.
Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty has already called Sept. 15 a “bellwether” for the legislation, arguing that there remains a viable path for Congress to establish a federal market-structure framework.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has also backed the legislation, describing the CLARITY Act as potentially the final major regulatory hurdle before broader institutional crypto adoption.
XRP already enters the debate from a relatively unusual position. Its long SEC litigation has ended, while recent federal regulatory actions have increasingly treated XRP alongside established digital commodities.
That regulatory advantage was highlighted in Coinpaper’s recent look at why XRP already has clarity, even if Congress fails to finish the broader framework.
XRP Pulls Back Before the Vote
XRP was trading around $1.35 on Sept. 11 after falling roughly 4% during the previous session.
That follows a sharp rebound from August lows near $0.90. XRP had climbed about 57% from that low by Sept. 7 as derivatives activity surged ahead of the Sept. 15 narrative. Coinpaper’s earlier XRP market analysis showed futures volume reaching $11.37 billion during the rebound.
The political problem, however, remains larger than XRP.
Reuters reported that both crypto companies and banking groups have intensified lobbying ahead of the vote, while opposition spans ethics, illicit-finance rules and potential effects on traditional bank deposits.
That makes Sept. 15 less of a simple XRP catalyst and more of a test of whether Washington can convert years of crypto regulatory debate into federal law.