Brad Garlinghouse Reveals What Happens to Ripple and XRP When Clarity Act Passes

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has given one of his clearest explanations yet of what the CLARITY Act would actually mean for Ripple, XRP and the broader financial system, and his answer is more significant than most people realise.

It Is Not About Ripple. It Is About the Banks.

Speaking on Fox Business, Garlinghouse said the CLARITY Act would not fundamentally change Ripple’s existing business. The company has already won its lawsuit against the SEC, with courts confirming that XRP is not a security. That battle is largely over.

What the CLARITY Act does instead is unlock something far bigger. It opens the door for banks in the United States and around the world to fully participate in the crypto industry without fear of legal consequences. And that, Garlinghouse says, changes everything.

“It unlocks banks in the United States and around the world to lean into this industry,” he said. “If we get it codified into law, more financial institutions in the United States and globally will be leaning in.”

Right now, many major financial institutions are interested in digital assets but held back by legal uncertainty. The CLARITY Act removes that uncertainty and gives them the green light to engage at scale.

What XRP Actually Does

Garlinghouse took a moment to explain XRP’s real-world role for viewers unfamiliar with the technology. XRP is an open-source digital asset that runs on the XRP Ledger, a blockchain designed specifically for payments and settlement. It is fast, cheap and energy efficient, making it well suited for moving large amounts of money across borders quickly.

The use cases are already real. Guggenheim and money market organisations are exploring the technology. The Land Authority of Dubai is using the XRP Ledger for land registry. Developers and entrepreneurs are building on the ledger at an accelerating pace, and real-world asset tokenisation is becoming one of its most significant growth areas.

Prime Brokerage Revenue Has Already Tripled

Garlinghouse also shared a business update. Ripple Prime, the company’s prime brokerage business, has already tripled its revenue run rate. He attributed this to Ripple’s strong balance sheet and its growing credibility with the world’s largest financial institutions, many of which previously refused to work with smaller crypto players but are now comfortable with Ripple as a counterparty.

He described 2026 as a record year for corporate demand, with CEOs and boards of directors across the United States actively asking their finance teams whether they should be using stablecoins and how they could be doing so more efficiently.