What happened
At Bitcoin Conference 2026, Ripple had a visible presence on the floor and XRP drew attention from investors who had previously kept their distance, according to a NewsBTC report Tuesday. Jake Claver, chairman of Digital Ascension Group, said he watched longtime Bitcoin holders walk over to the Ripple booth and start asking real questions about the XRP ecosystem. Speaking later on the Good Evening Crypto podcast, hosted by Abdullah 'Abs' Nassif, Claver made a sharper claim: the token doesn't need the CLARITY Act, the proposed digital-asset framework moving through Congress, to put in another move higher.
The legal cloud is already gone, in his read. The SEC's multi-year lawsuit against Ripple has been resolved. Capital is starting to follow the resolution rather than wait for fresh legislation.
Why it matters
Most of the bullish XRP commentary on crypto Twitter over the past year has been wired to a single catalyst: a CLARITY Act vote that hands digital assets a clean statutory home. Claver is saying that's the wrong frame. The SEC and CFTC, per his reading, have already issued guidance treating XRP as a digital commodity, and the GENIUS Act has done quieter work pushing the regulatory perimeter forward.
If he's right, the upside catalyst isn't a press conference on the Hill. It's execution: payments rails going live, custody desks opening books, and ETF issuers filing. That's a meaningfully different trade.