Ripple spent years arguing that U.S. crypto companies could not operate indefinitely under regulatory uncertainty.
Then, just as Washington appeared close to creating a broader market structure for digital assets, the CLARITY Act failed to advance in the Senate on Sept. 15.
Ripple called the vote a “tremendous missed opportunity” in its official response to the CLARITY Act’s failure, arguing that the bill could have established clearer rules for consumers and the digital-asset industry.
For Ripple, however, the setback lands differently than it would have several years ago.
The company already survived one of crypto’s defining regulatory battles. The SEC sued Ripple in 2020 over XRP sales, turning the question of XRP’s legal treatment into a years-long court fight.
Now Ripple has considerably more certainty around XRP itself, but the wider U.S. market still lacks the comprehensive framework the CLARITY Act was intended to provide.
XRP’s Problem Is No Longer Just the SEC
That distinction matters.
The failed legislation was broader than Ripple. It was designed to establish clearer boundaries between securities regulation and commodity-market oversight, including a larger role for the CFTC in digital-asset markets. The Senate vote fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bill.
Coinpaper previously broke down the unresolved SEC-versus-CFTC divide, which remains central after the bill’s failure.
For XRP holders, that means the question has changed.
It is no longer simply “Is XRP a security?” The bigger question is how exchanges, brokers, tokenized markets and other crypto businesses will operate under U.S. law without Congress establishing a single market-structure framework.
The immediate market reaction showed that investors were paying attention. XRP fell sharply around the failed vote even as U.S. XRP ETFs continued holding roughly 1.1 billion tokens, highlighting the tension between growing institutional infrastructure and regulatory uncertainty. That divergence was explored in Coinpaper’s coverage of the CLARITY vote and XRP ETF holdings.
Regulators Are Moving Without Congress
The failed vote does not freeze U.S. crypto policy.
The SEC has already proposed Regulation Crypto Assets, a rulemaking intended to create a framework for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets, while the CFTC continues working within its existing commodity and derivatives authority.
That creates an unusual position for Ripple.
After years of fighting for legal clarity around XRP, Ripple has obtained considerably more certainty for its own ecosystem while the regulatory debate has moved outward—to exchanges, tokenized assets, stablecoins and the division of authority between federal agencies.
XRP also now has something it lacked during the SEC lawsuit: substantial regulated investment infrastructure. Coinpaper recently examined why XRP ETF demand has not translated directly into a return to its all-time high.
