Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the US CLARITY Act could pass by the end of May 2026, framing the bill as a key step toward clearer digital-asset rules. Speaking at FII Priority, he also said the shift toward stablecoin-based payments is no longer a question of whether it will happen, but when.
Garlinghouse said he had been in Washington two days before the interview, where he met people involved in the legislative process. Those conversations, he said, left him more confident about the bill’s path. He added that the CLARITY Act has moved more slowly than expected because banks reopened debates over how stablecoin yields and reward structures should work.
Why Garlinghouse thinks a deal is close
According to Garlinghouse, the bill is meant to define which digital assets should be treated as securities and which should be treated as commodities. He cited a trusted source familiar with the legislative process, saying compromise tends to come when participants are most tired and most frustrated. On that basis, he predicted that lawmakers would get something through by the end of May.
He also pointed to a recent regulatory development as evidence that the policy climate has changed. Nine days before the interview, the SEC and CFTC jointly confirmed that 16 digital assets are commodities. Garlinghouse said that kind of joint position would have been difficult to imagine under the previous administration, and argued that the current one has already made substantial progress on structure and clarity.
Stablecoin debate grows as Ripple keeps some distance
Garlinghouse said the GENIUS Act, passed last summer, opened the door to more serious corporate interest in stablecoins. In his account, CEOs and CFOs at Fortune 2000 companies are now actively discussing whether their businesses should be using them, a conversation that had not been happening at the same scale before.
For Ripple, he said, the company does not have a major stake in the yield debate that has slowed the CLARITY Act. Ripple has launched its own stablecoin, RLUSD, and positioned it as payments infrastructure rather than a yield product. That leaves the company in a relatively neutral position while banks and crypto platforms continue to argue over rewards.
Attention turns to the coming Senate window
Garlinghouse said the next few weeks could shape the regulatory future of the US crypto industry, with the CLARITY Act potentially only weeks away from a Senate vote. The panel discussion also referenced broader forecasts from traditional finance figures, including Stanley Druckenmiller’s view that all payments will be done through stablecoins by 2030, and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s prediction that all assets will eventually be tokenized. Garlinghouse did not lay out a detailed legislative roadmap, but his remarks put fresh focus on the bill’s near-term timetable.