XRP After the CLARITY Act Setback and What the Senate's September 15 Vote Changed

September 28, 2026

The crypto market bill got stuck in the Senate, XRP took a hit but bounced right back and the next moves probably come from regulators, not lawmakers. Where does that leave XRP two weeks later?

XRP’s holding up better than most traders expected after D.C.’s biggest crypto letdown of the year. The XRP to USD rate sat at $1.54 in Binance’s September 28 update, with a 24-hour range of $1.51 to $1.55. Both figures provide context for the regulatory developments covered below.

For readers who follow entertainers’ business ventures as closely as market news, the XRP story is worth a look. It shows how much a token’s fate now depends on decisions made in Washington, and on the businesses built around it.

What’s Trump Done for Crypto Since Coming Back?

Trump’s second term has produced a series of pro-crypto executive actions. XRP hit the headlines immediately: On March 2, 2025, Trump posted on Truth Social that a new crypto reserve would include XRP, Solana and Cardano. He also promised to make America the “Crypto Capital of the World”, according to his posts on Truth Social. XRP shot up 36% in less than an hour, according to Yahoo Finance.

A follow-up order a few days later sounded less dramatic. It set up a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a Digital Asset Stockpile, but laid out that while the government can hold and sell XRP, it can’t buy more of it, according to the official executive order on govinfo.gov. Trump also pushed Congress to pass the CLARITY Act: He wanted to make sure the US kept its digital asset lead, according to Reuters.

On the stablecoin front, things moved even faster. Trump signed the GENIUS Act in July 2025, per Congress' website. Ripple now credits it with giving stablecoins in the U.S. a real legal framework, according to a press release from Ripple in December 2025.

Why Did the Senate Kill the CLARITY Act on September 15?

The short answer is ethics provisions. Talks fell apart between Republicans and the crypto-friendly Democrats because of language about limiting senior officials’ crypto investments. The bill didn’t reach the 60 votes needed to open up for debate. The final count? 49-50, so it missed by 11 votes, according to public records from the Senate.

Senator Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, put it simply: The ethics measures were “simply too thin", according to an official statement from Slotkin as published by the U.S. Senate. However, this was just a procedural vote, so senators never really got to the substance of the bill itself.

But for context, Binance Academy says the core idea behind the bill was to divide oversight between the SEC and the CFTC, making centralized exchanges register with the CFTC. And there’s a twist: Senator Thom Tillis switched his vote to “no” procedurally, which keeps the bill alive for another round, according to The Hill.

How Did XRP React Right After?

XRP took a harder hit than most of the big coins. It dropped 9.4% down to $1.28 on September 16, according to 24/7 Wall St, while Bitcoin barely budged. Why? History, mostly. XRP’s always been seen as the token closest to regulatory fire, due to Ripple’s multi-year legal battle with the SEC. That saga ended with a settlement in August 2025, according to Reuters.

On March 17, 2026, the SEC and CFTC jointly called XRP a digital commodity, so both agencies are locked into that stance now, according to a document from the Federal Register.

What Happened Since the Vote?

The market moved on, as regulators stepped in. XRP quickly recouped most of the drop, and spot XRP ETFs saw $75.59 million in inflows the week ending September 25, keeping an 11-week streak going, according to Coinstats.

The SEC isn’t waiting on Congress. Its own Regulation Crypto Assets proposal, released on September 1, is now the clearest path to a real rulebook, according to the agency’s website.

How do Trump-era Rules Open Things up for XRP?

Regulated firms can now build actual products using Ripple and its whole system. In December 2025, the OCC gave Ripple the green light, with conditions, to open Ripple National Trust Bank, which watches over reserves for its RLUSD stablecoin, according to a news release from OCC. Ripple’s also acquired prime broker Hidden Road, now rebranded as Ripple Prime, according to Yahoo Finance.

This momentum is showing up on the XRP Ledger. RLUSD balances there now beat out Ethereum’s, $810 million versus $756 million, based on XRP Insights data.

Ripple’s making mainstream moves too. They've inked a deal with Louisville Athletics. This means the XRP logo will appear courtside starting with the 2026-27 basketball season, according to Sports Illustrated.

Celebrity wealth often comes from building businesses over years. OK! Magazine's look at Tyra Banks and her $90 million fortune is a reminder that lasting value rarely comes from a single price spike, a point that applies to XRP after the Senate vote, for celebrity investors and everyday fans alike.

What Could Move XRP Next?

The Federal Reserve raised its target range for the federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point, to 3.75% to 4.00%, on September 16, 2026, according to the Federal Open Market Committee’s statement. It was the first increase since July 2023, and the committee approved it by a 12–0 vote.

Spot XRP ETFs have drawn about $1.68 billion in cumulative net inflows since launching in November 2025, according to SoSoValue data reported in September 2026, which shows institutional demand continuing even as the token’s price has stayed range-bound.