Ripple CEO seeks federal legislation
- Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said on May 5 the next two weeks are critical for a Senate crypto market-structure bill to keep moving. - The fight is over the CLARITY Act, which would split crypto oversight between the SEC and CFTC after years of case-by-case enforcement. - It matters because Ripple’s own court battle exposed the gap — and stablecoin rules are moving faster than broader crypto rules.
Crypto policy in Washington is finally getting specific — but not all at once. Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple’s CEO, used a public appearance on May 5 to argue that the Senate has a narrow window to move a broader crypto market-structure bill, warning that delay could kill the effort until after the midterms. That sounds like lobbying — and it is — but the bigger point is real. The U.S. still has pieces of crypto regulation, lawsuits, agency guidance, and state rules, but not one clear federal map for who regulates what. (coindesk.com) ### What is Garlinghouse actually asking for? He is pushing for federal legislation that tells crypto firms when a token is treated like a commodity, when it is treated like a security, and which agency is in charge. The bill at the center of this fight is the Digital Asset (coindesk.com)ons and court rulings. (congress.gov) ### Why is Ripple so invested in this? Because Ripple spent years as the example of what “regulation by lawsuit” looks like. The SEC sued Ripple in 2020 over XRP sales, and the case became a proxy war over whether many crypto tokens are securities. Ripple said in March 2025 that the SEC would drop its appeal, ending a major chapter in t(congress.gov)or the whole industry. (ripple.com) ### Why does the next two weeks matter? Garlinghouse’s point is basically legislative physics. If the Senate Banking Committee does not mark up a market-structure bill soon, the calendar gets ugly fast. Congress runs into appropriations fights, campaign season, and then midterm politics. He said the odds of passage drop “precipitou(ripple.com) that timing often kills bills before votes do. (theblock.co) ### Isn’t Congress already moving on crypto? Yes — but mostly on stablecoins. The GENIUS Act has been the cleaner, easier piece because it focuses on payment stablecoins rather than the entire crypto market. Congress.gov shows the bill text, and Senate Banking leadership highlighted(theblock.co)a much larger set of assets and trading venues. (congress.gov) ### What would CLARITY change in practice? For exchanges, issuers, and banks, the main change would be fewer gray zones. A federal framework could define registration paths, custody rules, disclosure duties, and when secondary-market trading falls outside securities law. Think of it as replacing a maze of overlapping signs with an actu(congress.gov 1) (congress.gov 2) ### Why should anyone outside crypto care? Because the real audience is no longer just token traders. Ripple has been pushing deeper into payments and regulated financial infrastructure, and it said earlier this year that it secured conditional federal approval for a national trust bank tied to stablecoin and custody ambitions. If Congr(congress.gov)ockchain rails without wondering which regulator shows up later. (ripple.com) ### So what is the actual story here? The story is not simply that a crypto CEO wants friendlier rules. It is that one of the industry’s most battle-tested executives is saying the window for a real federal framework is open right now — and may shut soon. Stablecoin legislation has momentum. Market-structure legislation still does not. That gap is exactly what Garlinghouse is trying to close. (coindesk.com) ### Bottom line Ripple’s pitch is straightforward: stop making courts and agencies improvise crypto policy one case at a time. The next fight is not about whether crypto exists. It is about whether Congress can finally decide the rules before another lawsuit does. (theblock.co)
