What the GENIUS Act Means for XRP Investors

America's crypto landscape took a significant turn last Friday when President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law. While this legislation provides a regulated path for stablecoin issuers like Ripple, some say it has a minimal impact on $XRP, at least in any meaningful way.

"Ripple is uniquely positioned to benefit from this new legislation," Austin King, co-founder of Omni Network, told Decrypt. The law gives stablecoins like "$USDC and $RLUSD a competitive advantage when it comes to institutional adoption, which is where the real winners will be made," he added.

While competitors such as Circle's $USDC and Tether's USDT will undoubtedly push to retain their market share, Ripple's established cross-border positioning could help its $RLUSD gain traction.

"The existence of $RLUSD would allow Ripple to become a native, on-shore liquidity provider in the U.S., competing directly with $USDC and PayPal USD," Yuri Brisov, Partner at Digital & Analogue Partners, told Decrypt. This, he explained, will allow Ripple to "reconfigure itself as a core infrastructure provider within the U.S. financial system."

However, any market share gains in the stablecoin arena are unlikely to translate into substantial price movements for $XRP itself, Decrypt was told.

Although every $RLUSD transaction burns a small amount of $XRP to cover network fees, this volume pales in comparison to $XRP's 59.1 billion coins in circulation.

For example, the $XRP Ledger has cumulatively burned a negligible 14 million tokens since its inception. Ripple CTO David Schwartz tempered expectations in the past, stating, "I still don't think burned $XRP will significantly reduce the supply any time soon."

The SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit continues to cast a shadow over $XRP's classification, with its security status remaining split. 

While $XRP is not deemed a security when sold programmatically on exchanges, it “may constitute a security in institutional placements,” according to Brisov.

He said the distinction “depends on sales context and leaves future classifications vulnerable to interpretation.”

Consequently, $XRP will likely continue to serve as a bridge token, with minimal direct impact on its price from the GENIUS Act, Brisov said.

Brisov elaborated that the legislation allows Ripple to strategically "reduce reliance on $XRP" where regulatory uncertainty persists, particularly in the context of sales, by leveraging $RLUSD. "This allows Ripple to rebalance its exposure without abandoning its core technology stack."

If the upcoming CLARITY Act, which proposes a formal path for digital assets to transition from securities to commodities, is adopted, it would bring clarity to $XRP, according to Brisov. 

That would "eliminate ambiguity” and “potentially open the door for “broader tokenization strategies for Ripple,” he said.