‘We Have Clarity:’ Ripple Execs Shrug Off CLARITY Act Failure—What’s Next?

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says XRP already has legal clarity, even after the CLARITY Act stalled in the Senate, as Evernorth rang the Nasdaq closing bell this week.Garlinghouse on Thursday said live at Nasdaq, covered by Talking Tokens, that a federal judge’s ruling that XRP is not a security gives the token the legal footing it needs.“You can’t put the genie back in the bottle,” he said, arguing that regulatory momentum keeps moving forward through SEC and CFTC rulemaking regardless of the stalled legislation.Why Ripple’s Top Lawyer Isn’t Worried About the Stalled BillRipple Chief Legal Officer Stu Alderoty, who also sits on Evernorth’s board, told Talking Tokens that the CLARITY Act’s failure stung, calling the final vote fully partisan and a missed opportunity.Like Garlinghouse, he said the SEC and CFTC have already stepped in to fill that regulatory gap through rulemaking and guidance.Alderoty argued the setback hits new entrepreneurs harder than established players like Ripple and Evernorth.He pointed to Ripple’s $150 million legal defense against the SEC, and the court win that followed, as proof the company can operate within existing rules without new legislation.He called institutional adoption, not new laws, the real driver of crypto’s current growth.Why Ripple’s Former CTO Sees No Technical Roadblocks LeftRipple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz, an Evernorth strategic adviser and board member, told Talking Tokens that lending already runs live on the XRP Ledger, though deeper DeFi integration still lags behind.He compared the remaining work to a solved engineering problem, pointing out that humanity already knows how to reach the moon, yet actually doing it again still takes real effort.Schwartz said he doesn’t see major technical gaps keeping banks or asset managers off the XRP Ledger.Instead, he pointed to regulation and integration as the real hurdles, calling companies like Evernorth essential for connecting XRP to existing financial infrastructure and corporate balance sheets.What Evernorth Actually Plans to Do With Its XRPEvernorth launched with roughly 473 million XRP and about $300 million in gross cash. The company plans to put that treasury to work through:LendingStakingLiquidity provisionRunning validators on the XRP LedgerAlderoty described Evernorth as the next step in XRP’s path to legitimacy, following the SEC lawsuit, the court ruling, and the launch of XRP ETFs that gave investors passive price exposure.Meanwhile, Schwartz said Ripple never originally envisioned a company built specifically around holding XRP as a treasury asset.The Ledger’s early focus centered on payments and connecting to existing financial systems, not corporate balance sheet strategy.Photo via Shutterstock Read Also: