SEC Crypto Rules After the Clarity Act Failed: What XRP Holders Get

After the Senate blocked the Clarity Act in a 49-50 procedural vote, the SEC pressed ahead on its own. Within days it granted a five-year exemption for tokenized stocks, and its staff published a Q&A on token buybacks, staking receipt tokens and network upgrades. None of it was voted on by Congress, and much of it can be reversed.

For XRP holders, the question is whether any of this changes the coin itself or just the rules around it. The Bullrunners video, hosted by Rory, argues that XRP’s own status barely moved, that what can be built around XRP may have shifted, and that the sturdiness of each new rule depends on who wrote it.

Why did the Clarity Act fail in the Senate?

The Clarity Act failed because it needed 60 votes to advance in the Senate and received only 49. The video describes the bill as the main rulebook for crypto in America: which coins count as what, and which regulator is in charge of them.

On why it failed, the video quotes Bankless, whose read was that Democrats felt confident about winning the midterms on November 3 and saw no need to compromise on a bill that would count as a Republican win. That is one outlet’s interpretation, not a settled fact.

Senator Lummis kept pushing the bill into October. According to the video, on October 8 she said Democrats had asked for consumer protection disclosures from crypto exchanges, those were added to the bill, and Senate Democrats voted no anyway. Bullrunners covered whether the crypto bill is dead after the 49-50 vote in more detail.

What did the SEC do after the vote?

The SEC took two separate steps after the Senate vote, and they carry very different weight.

1. September 17: a tokenized stock exemption. The commissioners voted through an order giving certain tokenized stocks (normal shares represented on a blockchain) a five-year exemption to trade. The SEC itself described the exemption as “intentionally limited in scope” and set to expire after five years while it evaluates future rulemaking.
2. September 25: a staff Q&A page. Staff in the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, not the commissioners, published answers on buybacks, staking and upgrades.

The SEC framed the moves as continuing progress using its statutory authority after Congress could not advance the bill. SEC Chair Paul Atkins told CNBC at the end of September that the agency was proceeding to provide clarity on how to raise money on chain even though the Clarity Act failed. Per Schwab Network, Atkins and CFTC Chair Mike Selig had both said their agencies would pursue crypto rulemaking whether or not the bill passed.

What does the SEC staff FAQ actually say?

The SEC staff FAQ says three things, in plain terms, according to the video:

• Buybacks: a crypto project buying back its own coins does not, on its own, turn the coin into a security (an investment like a share in a company).
• Staking receipts: if you lock up a coin treated as a commodity and receive a receipt token back, that receipt is not a security in the cases the staff described.
• Upgrades: a project can keep fixing and upgrading its network without that counting against it.

Uniswap founder Hayden Adams highlighted the first two points as good news. The catch, the video stresses, is that staff answers like these carry no legal force. They are the staff’s view, and later staff can change them. Bullrunners has a fuller explainer on the SEC crypto FAQ and why staff views are not law.

The SEC’s leadership is also thin. On October 2, Commissioner Hester Peirce, who led the agency’s crypto task force, stepped down, leaving the commission with two of its five seats filled, according to the video. Her last post on X read “Be careful out there.”

Did XRP holders win anything?

On the coin itself, not much changed. The video argues the more important moment for XRP came in March, when the SEC and the CFTC issued a joint interpretation naming XRP among the major coins they treat as digital commodities, meaning something you trade rather than a share in Ripple. That came from the commissions, so it is sturdier than a staff page, but it is still not law.

Where the staff FAQ might matter is around XRP. XRP has no built-in staking, but services on other networks offer something similar. The video cites Firelight on Flare, where users lock XRP and get a receipt token called stXRP. The staff answers were written about coins with native staking and never named XRP, Firelight or stXRP, so whether they apply is unclear. The video calls it “a door opening a crack, not a green light.”

It adds a caution: a receipt token is only as good as the service behind it. If that service is hacked or fails, a favorable SEC answer will not return anyone’s coins.

How easily can SEC staff guidance be undone?

Staff guidance can be undone by new staff without any vote, and the video points to a recent example. In 2022, SEC staff issued an accounting bulletin telling companies that held crypto for customers to record it on their books as a liability. A Bloomberg clip in the video says this made it functionally impossible for traditional financial firms to custody crypto.

The timeline went like this:

1. 2022: SEC staff issued the bulletin.
2. 2024: Congress voted to overturn it, and President Biden vetoed that.
3. January 2025: with new leadership, staff withdrew it through a new bulletin.

That is nearly three years of rules written and scrapped by staff. The video’s concern is that the new FAQ could be switched off the same way, with just a new page rather than a new law.

How does a proposed SEC rule differ from a staff page?

A formal rule is much harder to reverse than a staff page. The video notes the SEC proposed a larger rule, called Regulation Crypto Assets, in August. That proposal goes through public comment, and if finalized it would be far harder to undo. Bullrunners looked at what the Regulation Crypto Assets proposal means for XRP separately.

SEC action	Who issued it	How durable
Joint commodity interpretation (March)	SEC and CFTC commissions	Sturdier than staff views, not law
Tokenized stock exemption (September 17)	SEC commissioners	Formal order, expires after five years
Buyback and staking FAQ (September 25)	Division of Corporation Finance staff	No legal force, can be changed by staff
Regulation Crypto Assets (proposed August)	SEC commission	Harder to undo if finalized

The market was not calm about any of this. On vote day, Schwab Network reported Coinbase shares down about 11% and Bitcoin down roughly 4% to 5%.

A two-minute check on who controls your XRP

The video suggests a free check you can do on your phone:

1. Open the app where your XRP is held and find your XRP balance.
2. Ask: have I ever sent this to a wallet where only I hold the keys? If not, it is held in the exchange’s name, and the exchange’s rules sit on top of the SEC’s.
3. Open the app’s help section and search for the words “restrict” or “suspend.”
4. Read what comes up. That is effectively the list of reasons the exchange can lock your account.
5. If your coins are on an exchange, do not rush to move everything. The goal is to know where you stand.

For more on this, see what Coinbase’s terms and filings say about freezing accounts.

What to watch next

Three things will decide how much of this lasts. First, whether Regulation Crypto Assets is finalized, since a completed rule is far sturdier than a staff page. Second, the November 3 midterms, which decide who runs Congress and whether the Clarity Act gets another attempt. As of early October, the video says people in Washington were discussing one more try after the elections. Third, who fills the empty SEC commission seats, because the people at the top can change the agency’s direction.

The video’s summary: Congress froze, the agency moved, and most of what the agency has done so far points in crypto’s favor. But a rulebook nobody voted on can be rewritten just as quietly, so any plan for your holdings should work whichever way the rules go. Both the Regulation Crypto Assets proposal and the staff answers are published on the SEC’s website for anyone to read.