XRP Price Prediction: What Happens When the Senate Returns April 13 and the CLARITY Act Markup Follows?
XRP Price Prediction: What Happens When the Senate Returns April 13 and the CLARITY Act Markup Follows?
Sam DaoduTue, April 7, 2026 at 8:57 PM UTC
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The Senate returns April 13 and has roughly two working weeks to schedule the CLARITY Act markup before midterm election season compresses the Senate calendar.
The stablecoin yield dispute that stalled the bill twice now has an agreement in principle, but a four-way fight between banks, crypto firms, Senate Democrats, and regulators issuing their own guidance could still delay the vote.
Ripple has built $2.4 billion in institutional infrastructure that currently runs on fiat and RLUSD. The CLARITY Act is what enables banks to use XRP as the bridge asset in On-Demand Liquidity.
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The Senate went on Easter recess on March 30 without scheduling the CLARITY Act markup, and nothing moves until senators are back in session on April 13. Once they return, the Banking Committee has about two weeks to get the bill through before midterm election season starts eating up the Senate calendar.
XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) is trading near $1.30 right now, and the CLARITY Act is the difference between its commodity classification being written into law or remaining something a future administration could quietly undo. What happens in those two weeks after April 13 could set the tone for XRP's price action for the rest of the year.
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How Close Is the CLARITY Act to a Senate Vote?
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The stablecoin yield dispute stalled the CLARITY Act’s January markup and delayed it beyond the March deadline. Now there is an agreement in principle, and Coinbase, which rejected the previous draft, has publicly said the deal is very close. The Senate returns on April 13, and if the final text holds, the Banking Committee can schedule the markup for the last two weeks of April. And that would be the closest the bill has been to an actual vote since it passed the House last July.
Getting through the committee is only the first of five steps before the bill becomes law. It still needs 60 votes on the Senate floor, reconciliation with the Agriculture Committee version, reconciliation with the House version, and a presidential signature. The Senate calendar only has about 18 working weeks left before the midterm campaign season takes over, and multiple lawmakers have stated that if this doesn't move by May, crypto legislation would get shelved.
The bill also faces a four-way fight now, with banks trying to protect their deposit base and crypto firms pushing for market access. Senate Democrats are also demanding ethics rules that stop officials from profiting off crypto, and regulators at the SEC and CFTC are already issuing their own guidance on digital asset classification instead of waiting for Congress. Any one of those four groups can stall the bill on its own, and the CLARITY Act has already been stalled twice this year.
What April Events Could Move the XRP Price?
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The FOMC meeting on April 28-29 could be just as important for the XRP price as the CLARITY Act, because it's likely Jerome Powell's last meeting as Fed Chair before Kevin Warsh takes over on May 15.
The market has dropped after seven of the last eight FOMC meetings, and Powell's tone on whether the oil-driven inflation is temporary or structural will shape how crypto assets trade through Q2. A dovish signal would give XRP a macro tailwind at the exact moment it needs one, while a hawkish tone would keep risk assets under the same selling pressure that has dragged the entire market down since February.
The SEC is also holding a separate CLARITY Act roundtable on April 16, just three days after the Senate returns. It’s not a vote or a markup, but a public discussion about digital asset market structure that could signal which direction regulators are leaning before Congress acts. Ripple's leadership is in Japan right now for the XRP Tokyo 2026 conference focused on real-world asset tokenization, and any partnership announcements from that event could move sentiment before the legislative calendar even kicks in.
XRP has been consolidating in a
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tight range for roughly 59 days, and the Bollinger Bands are at their narrowest in months. Such compression could spark a price breakout if a catalyst triggers it, and April has more of them lined up than any month this year.
What Happens to the XRP Price If the Markup Passes?
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Once XRP's commodity status is written into federal law through the CLARITY Act, banks can use it as the bridge asset in Ripple's On-Demand Liquidity product without worrying about a future regulator pulling the rug. Ripple President Monica Long has confirmed the company has institutional partnerships locked behind NDAs that expire once the bill passes.
If the Banking Committee advances the bill in late April, you probably won't see the XRP price jump to $5 overnight. What would happen is a shift in institutional adoption. XRP ETF inflows would pick back up, major banks will start using XRP across Ripple’s payment corridors, and Ripple would sign more partnerships. When all those happen, XRP would target its $3.65 cycle high and if it manages to break above it, then the road to $5 starts looking realistic.
What If the CLARITY Act Stalls Again?
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The bill has already stalled twice this year, and both times, the XRP price barely moved because the market still expected it to pass eventually. But a third stall, especially at this time where the XRP price is approaching the $1.28 support could hurt its momentum. If the markup doesn't happen before May, the market would stop pricing in a delay and start pricing in the bill not passing at all, and that's a fundamentally different repricing than what’s happened so far.
If the CLARITY Act fails, XRP would lose its last fundamental catalyst, and would keep mirroring Bitcoin’s movement. At a $1.30 price with Bitcoin stuck under $70,000 and no rate cuts expected before December, the XRP price would have nothing to push it higher on its own.
The practical reality is that Ripple will keep signing partnerships and growing RLUSD regardless of whether the bill passes. But none of that growth will reach the XRP price until banks have permanent legal cover to use XRP as the bridge asset in cross-border settlement. Without the CLARITY Act, they'll keep settling in fiat and RLUSD instead, and XRP would stay range-bound between $1.00 and $1.50 through the rest of the year.
Our XRP Price Prediction for April
Our conservative XRP price prediction for April is that it finishes the month within $1.20 and $1.60. If the Banking Committee advances the bill, the XRP price will likely push toward $1.45-$1.60 as institutional capital will start flowing back in. But if it stalls again, XRP could break below the $1.28 support and drop toward $1.20.
Beyond April, there's a scenario most people aren't talking about yet. The April 28-29 FOMC is Powell's last meeting, and Kevin Warsh takes the chair on May 15. J.P. Morgan expects Warsh to push for rate cuts once he's seated, driven by his argument that AI-fueled productivity gains give the Fed room to ease without reigniting inflation.
If the CLARITY Act clears committee in late April and Warsh's first meeting delivers a cut, that would be the first time all year that XRP has both a firm regulatory footing and favorable macro conditions. In such a scenario, XRP would break above $2 again, and could target its $3.65 cycle high once more.
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Source: “AOL Money”
