Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple Labs, warned Tuesday that recent progress on the digital asset market structure bill in the US Senate did not guarantee success for the legislation, speculating that the next two weeks would be crucial.
Speaking at the Consensus crypto conference in Miami, Garlinghouse said that the likelihood of the market structure bill, the CLARITY Act, passing would “drop precipitously” if not addressed in the next two weeks. According to the Ripple CEO, the bill would be “too much of a loaded issue” amid campaigns for the 2026 US midterms, with primaries ongoing until the November elections.
“Do I think it's perfect? Hell no,“ said Garlinghouse, referring to CLARITY. “I challenge you to show me any piece of legislation that we would call perfect. There's tradeoffs and compromises, but I do think clarity is better than chaos.”
Source: Cointelegraph
The CEO’s remarks came after US Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks announced a compromise on stablecoin yield last week that could lead to the advancement of the CLARITY Act. Addressing stablecoins, as well as tokenized equities and ethics, has been one of the factors holding up the bill in the Senate since it was passed by the US House of Representatives in July 2025.
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The CLARITY Act, already advanced by the Senate Agriculture Committee in a January markup, also requires approval by the Senate Banking Committee before a vote in the full chamber. Garlinghouse and Ripple executives have been part of negotiations on the CLARITY Act between White House officials and representatives of the crypto and banking industries.
“The Clarity Act is not a future priority; it is the priority,” said Senator Cynthia Lummis, a member of the banking committee, in a Tuesday X post. “Every corner of the industry is operating under legal uncertainty that Congress has the power to fix. The Senate needs to act.”
US financial agencies already moving forward without Congress
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) signed a memorandum of understanding in March to coordinate their approach to oversight of the digital asset market structure. SEC Chair Paul Atkins said that the agency‘s approach to crypto laws provided a “beginning, not an end,” with the commission awaiting passage of the CLARITY Act.
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