The United States has entered a critical phase in its long-running effort to define cryptocurrency rules, according to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse. His comments followed the CFTC’s inaugural Innovation Advisory Committee meeting on Aug. 20 in Washington, where regulators, crypto executives, and traditional finance leaders gathered to discuss digital assets, artificial intelligence, and prediction markets.

No August doldrums in DC this week! It was great to join the inaugural @CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee (a group I've called "the Olympic roster of crypto.") But for a “crypto” gathering, there were a LOT of TradFi players in the room like @NASDAQ , @CMEGroup , @CBOE ,… pic.twitter.com/T6hjrcK2e8 — Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) August 22, 2026

The meeting underscored how deeply traditional finance is now involved in the policy debate. Garlinghouse described the committee as an “Olympic roster” of industry and market leaders. Members include Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Uniswap Labs CEO Hayden Adams, and Chainlink Labs co-founder Sergey Nazarov. Executives from Nasdaq, CME Group, Cboe Global Markets, DTCC, and the London Stock Exchange Group also participate.

Against that backdrop, Garlinghouse said participants largely agreed that older financial rules no longer adequately address modern digital markets. That position reflects a notable shift from Ripple’s own messaging seven years ago. In July 2019, Garlinghouse and Executive Chairman Chris Larsen urged Congress not to treat every digital currency alike and warned that regulatory uncertainty could push jobs and investment overseas.

Since then, the federal regulatory framework has changed significantly. In March, the SEC and CFTC issued joint guidance covering several crypto asset categories and transactions. The interpretation addressed staking, mining, wrapping, and airdrops while reaffirming that the Howey test remains the controlling legal precedent.

On Aug. 18, the SEC proposed a broader framework that includes new fundraising exemptions and a possible safe harbor for some digital assets. Even so, agency-level rules do not carry the same permanence as federal legislation.

That legislative focus now turns to Sept. 15, when the Senate is scheduled to hold a cloture vote on proceeding with H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. The 2:15 p.m. ET vote would not pass the bill itself. Instead, it would determine whether the Senate can move forward to debate the measure, and cloture requires 60 votes. H.R. 3633 cleared the House on a bipartisan 308–121 vote in July 2025, leaving the Senate as the bill’s remaining legislative step, and reaching 60 votes will test whether that cross-party support extends to the upper chamber.

If lawmakers clear that procedural hurdle, major disagreements would still remain. Negotiations are ongoing over ethics provisions, illicit-finance safeguards, and other market-structure issues. President Donald Trump added to the pressure on Aug. 19, urging Congress to pass a “fair version” of the legislation. The vote is also the next milestone in a broader congressional push that produced the GENIUS Act, the stablecoin law signed in July 2025, leaving market-structure legislation as the other major unfinished piece of Washington’s crypto agenda.

The CLARITY Act is designed to spell out when digital assets fall under securities or commodities oversight and to define how authority should be divided between the SEC and CFTC. Under the bill’s framework, assets classified as digital commodities would sit under CFTC jurisdiction, where spot markets have historically faced lighter requirements than the registration and disclosure regime the SEC applies to securities — a distinction that shapes which platforms can list which tokens and what obligations issuers carry. For Ripple, that distinction has particular importance after years of litigation over XRP sales.

Ripple’s SEC case formally ended in August 2025 after both sides dismissed their appeals. The outcome left a $125.04 million civil penalty in place, along with restrictions on unregistered institutional XRP sales. Earlier, the district court ruled that programmatic XRP sales on public exchanges were not unregistered securities offerings, while certain institutional sales were found to have violated securities laws.

That history helps explain Garlinghouse’s continued emphasis on congressional action. Regulators have taken steps toward clearer guidance, but a durable nationwide market structure still depends on legislation. If cloture fails, the bill would stall in the Senate; if it succeeds, the chamber would move to floor debate and possible amendments. As a result, the Sept. 15 Senate vote has become the clearest near-term test of whether Washington can turn regulatory momentum into lasting federal law.

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