Senate Rejects CLARITY Act, Sparking Crypto Rout
The Senate's rejection of the CLARITY Act has led to significant losses in several major cryptocurrencies. XRP, which had been trading at $1.29, fell by 9.3% over the past 24 hours, more than three times the decline of Bitcoin, which lost 2.8%. Solana and Ether also suffered losses of 5.2% and 4.5%, respectively.
The CLARITY Act aimed to clarify which digital assets would be overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Its rejection leaves supervision in a state of uncertainty, with agencies acting on a case-by-case basis. This lack of clarity has had a profound impact on tokens that rely heavily on regulatory certainty.
XRP, in particular, had been pricing out this very uncertainty and was expecting a clearer legal status from the CLARITY Act. Its issuer has spent years in litigation with the SEC, leaving its classification uncertain. As a result, XRP's price plummeted by 9.3% over the past 24 hours.