The United States has entered a critical phase in its long-running effort to define cryptocurrency rules, according to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse. His assessment followed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) inaugural Innovation Advisory Committee meeting in Washington, where regulators, crypto executives, and traditional finance leaders convened.
The meeting covered digital assets, artificial intelligence, and prediction markets. It also coincided with preparations in Congress for a September procedural test of the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act.
Regulatory Momentum and Traditional Finance Involvement
Garlinghouse described the CFTC gathering as an industry advisory group bringing together crypto executives and traditional financial players. Participants included representatives from Nasdaq, CME Group, Cboe Global Markets, the DTCC, and the London Stock Exchange Group. According to Garlinghouse, participants largely agreed that older financial rules no longer adequately address modern digital markets.
This discussion unfolds against a backdrop of recent regulatory actions:
- March: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and CFTC issued joint guidance covering crypto asset categories, staking, mining, wrapping, and airdrops, while affirming the Howey test as controlling legal precedent.
- August 18: The SEC proposed a broader framework featuring new fundraising exemptions and a possible safe harbor for certain digital assets.
Despite these administrative steps, industry participants note that agency rules do not offer the same durability as federal legislation.
September 15 Senate Vote
Legislative attention now focuses on Sept. 15, when the Senate is scheduled to hold a cloture vote on proceeding with H.R. 3633, known as the CLARITY Act. The procedural vote requires 60 votes to advance debate rather than pass the bill.
Negotiations continue over ethics provisions, illicit-finance safeguards, and market-structure issues. President Donald Trump urged Congress to pass a fair version of the legislation, which aims to clarify when digital assets fall under securities or commodities oversight and divide authority between the SEC and CFTC.
For Ripple, regulatory distinctions carry added significance following the conclusion of its SEC litigation in August 2025. That case ended with a $125.04 million civil penalty and an injunction against unregistered institutional sales, while a district court previously ruled that programmatic XRP sales on public exchanges were not unregistered securities offerings.
