Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty has moved to reassure the XRP community following the crypto industry’s dramatic failure in the Senate.
“Don’t forget – Ripple and XRP stand on settled ground,” Alderoty wrote after the vote. “The 2023 federal Court ruling established XRP is not a security.”
The Ripple legal chief also pointed to more recent regulatory guidance from the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
“And in March the SEC and CFTC issued a joint interpretation naming XRP a Crushing Senate defeat
Alderoty’s comments came after the Senate failed to advance the Clarity Act.
Senators voted 49-50 against invoking cloture on the motion to proceed to the legislation. Sixty votes were required. The bill was 11 votes short of the threshold.
No Democratic senator voted to invoke cloture. Democratic Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Mark Warner, Cory Booker, Raphael Warnock, Ruben Gallego, Angela Alsobrooks, Catherine Cortez Masto, Lisa Blunt Rochester and John Fetterman were among those voting against advancing the legislation. Republican Sens. Susan Collins, Josh Hawley and Jerry Moran also voted no.
The failure came despite another round of intense negotiations immediately before the vote.
“This one stings”
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse made little attempt to hide his disappointment after the result. “This one stings,” he wrote.
“Our team gave everything we had to get the Clarity Act across the finish line. So did most of the industry,” he added.
Garlinghouse claims that a post-mortem needs to be done on why the legislation, which required months of intense negotiations, ultimately failed. He then blamed Democratic politics for the result.
Despite the defeat, Garlinghouse claims that there is still a reason to be optimistic about crypto in the United States.
The Ripple boss expects the cryptocurrency rulemaking process to be spearheaded by the SEC and the CFTC.
“Now, the SEC, under Chair Atkins, and the CFTC, under Chair Selig, will continue to work hard to issue rules to fill the legislative gap, and we will continue to be actively engaged in that rulemaking process.”
