Further delays to the CLARITY Act have preserved uncertainty across the crypto market, but XRP remained near $1.40 while traders kept about $3.15 billion in futures open interest. The proposed legislation is intended to clarify oversight of digital assets between the SEC (U.S. securities regulator) and CFTC (U.S. derivatives regulator), yet XRP enters the debate with a more developed U.S. legal record than many major tokens. Ripple and the SEC dismissed their appeals in August 2025, effectively ending a case that began in 2020. The final judgment imposed a $125 million penalty on Ripple tied to institutional sales, while an earlier ruling found that programmatic XRP sales on exchanges were not unregistered securities offerings. The CLARITY Act’s planned Sept. 15 procedural vote has faced repeated delays, tightening the legislative timetable ahead of the November elections. If the Senate changes the House version, the House would need to approve those changes before the bill could reach the president. With XRP’s legal backdrop less directly exposed to individual SEC developments than it was in 2024 or early 2025, leveraged positioning may now pose a more immediate market risk. Large derivatives positions can amplify moves when traders become concentrated on one side, and the current CLARITY Act delay does not carry the same direct consequence as the SEC’s decision to drop its Ripple appeal.