Brad Garlinghouse took to X this week to back his own chief legal officer's call to action. Ripple CLO Stuart Alderoty had argued that lawmakers shouldn't let the search for a flawless bill kill the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, and Garlinghouse's response was blunt: "Perfect can't be the enemy of good. Let's get this done."
Alderoty framed the Clarity Act as a consumer protection measure, not just a piece of industry-friendly deregulation. His argument: the bill would establish clear AML and KYC standards, give law enforcement real tools to act, and strip bad actors of the regulatory grey zones they've exploited for years. "Leave it on the table," he wrote, "and consumers are left twisting in the wind with the status quo."
Senate Democrats push back, odds fall below 40%
The timing is uncomfortable. A group of Senate Democrats, including Maryland's Angela Alsobrooks, New Jersey's Cory Booker, Nevada's Catherine Cortez Masto, and Arizona's Ruben Gallego, have come out against the latest version of the bill. That opposition has narrowed the path considerably. Prediction markets now put the odds of the Clarity Act becoming law this year at under 40%, down sharply from earlier in the session.
Joshua Riezman of GSR made the case that the pushback is misreading both the policy and the political moment. His warning was direct: blocking market structure reform over issues unrelated to the bill's core purpose doesn't produce a cleaner outcome, it just cements regulatory chaos and sends crypto development to jurisdictions more willing to engage. "It wastes years of bipartisan work," he wrote. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong joined the chorus, calling the bill ready for a full Senate floor vote and describing it as a genuine bipartisan compromise that shouldn't stall in committee politics.
The industry has been waiting on federal crypto market structure rules for years. Another failed cycle would leave exchanges, token issuers, and retail holders navigating the same patchwork of enforcement actions and legal ambiguity that defined the last half-decade.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.
