Senate Republicans added a new legal definition to the CLARITY Act hours before Tuesday's cloture vote, expanding the bill from roughly 616 to 635 pages. The added language would treat XRP as a digital commodity in secondary markets regardless of how much of the token Ripple holds.
A definition added overnight
Senate Republicans circulated a revised CLARITY Act draft shortly before Tuesday's cloture vote, growing the bill from about 616 pages to 635. The new text defines an "ancillary asset" as a network token whose value depends on the entrepreneurial or managerial efforts of an originator, or of someone related to the originator. Under the draft, no provision in the bill causes an ancillary asset to stop being a network token.
Applied to XRP, the language would classify it as a digital commodity in secondary markets no matter how much XRP Ripple holds on its balance sheet. Concentration of supply has been the strongest argument against that treatment, and the provision removes it from consideration.
Why the vote count needed it
Cloture on the motion to proceed requires 60 votes, and Republicans hold 53 seats. Reporting indicates the revision arrived alongside a White House concession on expanded conflict-of-interest rules and state-level enforcement powers, the specific objection that caused Democrats to walk away from the bill's ethics provisions in July.
Today, XRP's status in secondary markets rests on a 2023 district court ruling that held programmatic exchange sales were not securities transactions, while institutional sales under contract were. That ruling was never appealed and has never been tested at the circuit level. Seven asset managers have filed for XRP spot ETFs on the expectation that Congress would resolve the question.
Nothing is settled yet
The bill has not passed. Tuesday's vote only decides whether the Senate begins debate, and debate is where amendments happen. A provision inserted the night before a vote, benefiting one company, is among the most exposed items in a 635-page text once the amendment process starts.
XRP trades around $1.40, up roughly 4% in a day, against a July 2025 high of $3.65. The token rallied after the Senate Banking Committee advanced the bill 15-9 in May, and again in July after the White House agreed to the ethics provision, and gave both moves back once each event failed to change its legal status. This is educational analysis, not investment advice.
Source: crypto.news
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