The Senate is back in session today after a two-week Easter recess, and the CLARITY Act markup window is officially open. The Banking Committee has roughly two weeks to schedule a vote before midterm politics takes over the Senate calendar, and every major obstacle that stalled the bill twice this year has been cleared. Coinbase’s CEO endorsed it on April 9, Treasury Secretary Bessent backed it the same day, and both the SEC and CFTC chairs confirmed they’re ready to implement it.
Three days from now, the SEC is holding a digital asset roundtable that the crypto community has been calling a “CLARITY Act roundtable”—although the reality is a bit more nuanced than that. XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) is hovering around $1.33 with regulatory catalysts lined up this week, so here’s what to expect from both events and what they could mean for the price.
What the Senate Returning Today Means for XRP and the CLARITY Act
The Banking Committee left for Easter recess on March 30 without scheduling the CLARITY Act markup. Two weeks later, the committee is back, and the two things that killed the bill earlier this year have both been resolved since the Senate went on break.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong blocked the bill in January over stablecoin yield restrictions that threatened $1.35 billion in annual revenue, then rejected a revised draft again in March. On April 9, he endorsed it after a White House report found that banning stablecoin yield would cost consumers $800 million a year while doing almost nothing to protect bank deposits.
Treasury Secretary Bessent published a Wall Street Journal op-ed backing the bill the same day, and both the SEC and CFTC chairs confirmed they’re ready to implement it the moment Congress acts. Senator Lummis also confirmed at the Chamber of Digital Commerce Blockchain Summit that the DeFi provisions—another sticking point—are finalized.
Chairman Tim Scott is now targeting a markup in the final two weeks of April, and the bill needs to clear before the midterm campaigning takes over the Senate calendar. Polymarket currently prices passage at around 57%. For XRP, the bill would make its commodity classification permanent federal law—not just a SEC opinion that a future administration could reverse.
What the April 16 SEC Roundtable Actually Is—and Why It Still Matters for XRP
A lot of people on X have been calling the April 16 SEC event a “CLARITY Act roundtable,” but the SEC’s own announcement says it’s focused on options market structure. The agenda lists opening remarks from Commissioner Hester Peirce, Commissioner Mark Uyeda, and Jamie Selway, the Director of Trading and Markets—and there’s no mention of digital assets or crypto classification anywhere in the official notice.
That said, these are the same commissioners who have been running the SEC’s crypto overhaul all year. Peirce leads the Crypto Task Force, which has already held six public roundtables on crypto trading, custody, tokenization, and DeFi since early 2025. Uyeda has been reviewing and pulling back Gensler-era staff guidance that the crypto industry spent years fighting against. When both of them are running an SEC event three days after the Senate returns, the market is going to read into it regardless of what the agenda officially says.
The bigger picture is that the SEC has already done a lot of the prep work that the CLARITY Act would need. The token taxonomy from March 17 classified XRP and 15 other assets as digital commodities, and the Crypto Task Force has spent over a year building the rulemaking framework that would sit underneath the legislation. If the Banking Committee advances the bill in late April, the SEC won’t need months to figure out how to enforce it—they’ve been building toward this since early 2025.
XRP Price Prediction for April
XRP has been stuck between $1.28 and $1.45 for most of 2026, and April could be the month where that range either breaks or holds for the rest of the year. The three scenarios below are tied to specific events happening over the next two weeks.
Bullish Case: Banking Committee Schedules the Markup Before May
A confirmed markup date alone would probably move the XRP price before the vote even happens. If the bill passes, XRP ETF inflows could realistically hit $4 to $8 billion on top of the $1.2 billion that spot ETFs have already pulled in without the bill being law. The first test would be the $1.45 resistance, where roughly 60% of XRP’s circulating supply was bought—as there’s a wall of holders looking to break even. If XRP pushes through that, then $1.60 is the next target.
Base Case: Roundtable Goes Well but No Markup Date Yet
If the Senate comes back and talks about the CLARITY Act without actually scheduling the vote, XRP could stay in the same range it’s been in. The April 16 roundtable could give the market a brief bump, but without a concrete markup date, there’s nothing to force a breakout above $1.40. XRP would likely close April in the $1.30–$1.40 range, which would still be a green month compared to the $1.33 March close—but barely.
Bear Case: Markup Stalls Past May and the War Escalates
If the Banking Committee doesn’t schedule a markup before May, the market will stop treating it as a delay and start treating it as a failure. The ceasefire expires April 22, and the Islamabad talks already collapsed over the weekend. Should the war escalate again and oil prices climb back above $110, XRP could lose the $1.28 support and drop toward $1.15.
Will the CLARITY Act Finally Move the XRP Price This Month?
We think April is the best shot XRP has had all year. The bill’s setup is stronger than it was in January or March, and this time there’s no Coinbase blocking it and no unresolved stablecoin fight holding it up. One thing worth noting is that David Sacks’ 130-day term as White House crypto czar expired on March 26 and hasn’t been replaced, so the final committee push is happening without a dedicated crypto advocate inside the West Wing.
If Tim Scott schedules the markup before May, XRP has a real chance of pushing through $1.45 and back toward $1.60 where it was after the SEC commodity classification in March. If he doesn’t, the bill is probably done for 2026, and XRP goes back to being at the mercy of the war and the Fed like it has been all year.
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