Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the CLARITY Act faces a very tight window in the U.S. Senate, warning that the bill could lose momentum fast if lawmakers do not move within the next two weeks. In his view, any delay that pushes the legislation closer to the 2026 U.S. midterm elections would make it much harder to advance, as campaign politics could turn digital asset market structure into a heavily charged issue.
Garlinghouse made the comments at the Consensus crypto conference. He said the bill’s prospects would “drop precipitously” if the Senate fails to act in that timeframe. The warning is notably more cautious than his earlier timeline. At XRP Las Vegas on April 30, he said he expected the CLARITY Act to reach President Donald Trump before the Memorial Day recess. Before that, during a February appearance on Fox Business, he had put the odds of April passage at 80%.
Stablecoin yield compromise removes one sticking point
The latest warning came after Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks reached a compromise on stablecoin yield. The deal bars crypto platforms from offering interest-like returns on stablecoins that resemble bank deposits, while still allowing rewards connected to payments and platform activity. That dispute had slowed the bill since January, centering on whether third-party platforms could pass returns through to users holding stablecoin balances.
A White House Council of Economic Advisers report found that a full ban on such arrangements could cost consumers $800 million per year. Garlinghouse pointed to that finding as part of the path that made compromise possible. Even with that hurdle partly cleared, the calendar remains tight. The bill has already passed the U.S. House and cleared a Senate Agriculture Committee markup in January, but it still needs approval from the Senate Banking Committee before it can go to a full Senate vote.
Several procedural steps still stand in the way
Crypto.news has tracked at least five remaining steps for the CLARITY Act, including committee approval, a 60-vote threshold in the Senate, and reconciliation with both the Agriculture Committee version and the House bill. Market pricing has also been more restrained than Garlinghouse’s earlier optimism. Polymarket placed the chance of passage in 2026 at about 46%, while Galaxy Research and TD Cowen offered similar or weaker expectations.
Industry participants say uncertainty has not disappeared. Daniel Reis-Faria said the stablecoin yield agreement removes one concern for investors, but it does not answer how future rules will be applied in practice. Regulatory implementation details are expected within a year after passage, and that lack of clarity has kept institutional players cautious.
Ripple executives, including Garlinghouse, have taken part in discussions involving White House officials, crypto companies, and banking groups as negotiations have moved forward. The bill also overlaps with broader regulatory coordination. In March, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission signed a memorandum of understanding to align their approaches to digital asset oversight. Garlinghouse said the legislation is not perfect, but argued that regulatory clarity is still preferable to prolonged uncertainty.