XRP Surges Past Bitcoin as CLARITY Act Advances, But Bullrun Hinges on Congress

Markets

What to know:

XRP investors received encouraging news on Thursday when the Senate Banking Committee approved the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act with a vote of 15 to 9. This moves a key piece of proposed legislation for regulating the crypto market one step closer to a vote by the full Senate.

Following the recent vote, XRP’s price surged past $1.50, increasing by 5% in the last 24 hours and 7.6% over the week. This strong performance makes XRP one of the leading cryptocurrencies, as Bitcoin and Ether only saw weekly gains of less than 3%.

The strong response was not surprising, as XRP is one of the few major cryptocurrencies so heavily impacted by unclear rules and regulations in the United States.

In December 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple, which caused years of uncertainty for XRP. This led to exchanges pausing XRP trading and institutions being wary of investing. While a 2023 court decision clarified that secondary trading of XRP wasn’t considered a sale of securities, the market still lacked clear, long-term rules. Large investors were hoping for federal legislation to provide that stability and prevent future regulators from changing the rules.

The CLARITY bill aims to create clearer rules for digital assets, bringing more of them under established market regulations. This would give financial institutions a more certain legal foundation for handling, trading, and investing in these assets, including through exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, celebrated the committee vote on X (formerly Twitter), stating that the crypto industry should be subject to the same regulations and receive the same protections as traditional investments.

The proposed bill still faces several hurdles before it can become law. It needs to be combined with a version from another Senate committee, approved by the entire Senate, reconciled with any differences in a House version, and then signed by the President. While Senator Lummis reports broad agreement on the bill’s content, Senator Warren has raised concerns about how the process is unfolding. The upcoming Memorial Day break adds a sense of urgency to the current effort.

Positive feelings about XRP and growing interest in it are driven by key factors that affect both the cryptocurrency itself and the company Ripple.

Alexis Sirkia, a pioneer in XRP and Ethereum trading and now head of the decentralized clearing firm Yellow Network, predicts that by mid-2026, the significance of XRP won’t be about its price, but rather the subtle and fundamental changes it will bring to the global financial system.

Now that legal issues are resolved and investors are continuing to hold onto their XRP, the XRP Ledger is becoming a reliable platform for tokenizing assets and processing settlements, making it attractive to large financial institutions because it meets their specific requirements.

The XRP Ledger, which powers xrp cryptocurrency, has seen increased activity recently. The value of real-world assets turned into tokens on the network has surpassed $3 billion, making it a top choice for institutions looking to tokenize assets outside of Ethereum.

A recent test involving Ripple, JPMorgan, Mastercard, and Ondo successfully redeemed a tokenized U.S. Treasury bill in less than five seconds. This shows it’s possible to connect public blockchains with standard banking payment systems.

The decentralized finance (DeFi) world connected to XRP has expanded significantly, now holding over $560 million in value. This growth is largely thanks to platforms like Flare and Doppler Finance, which allow XRP to be used in DeFi applications.

Spot XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) listed in the U.S. saw a significant increase in investment earlier this week, attracting $25.8 million in net inflows – their biggest single-day gain since January. This brings the total amount of money invested in these ETFs to $1.35 billion.

The recent increase in funds comes after Ripple secured $200 million in financing for its Ripple Prime service and successfully tested tokenized U.S. Treasury settlements on the XRP Ledger, in partnership with JPMorgan, Mastercard, and Ondo Finance.

XRP is still trading significantly lower than its peak value from 2025, and buyers need to push the price back above $1.50 to signal a potential recovery.

The committee vote gave XRP a catalyst. Full legal clarity is still the trade.

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2026-05-16 14:43