Stuart Alderoty, Ripple’s legal chief and President of the National Cryptocurrency Association (NCA), has issued a stark warning to federal lawmakers: the U.S. cryptocurrency constituency is no marginal movement. In a July 7 op-ed and social media post, Alderoty emphasized that 67 million American adults—one in four—now hold digital assets, a figure that has grown by 12 million new users in the past year alone.
His comments come as the CLARITY Act, a bill to establish federal market rules for crypto, missed its July 4 target and now faces an Aug. 7 deadline before the Senate summer recess. A recent Politico poll showed only 27% of Americans support the bill, a number some Washington insiders interpreted as disinterest. Alderoty countered that the 27% support figure mirrors exactly the share of adults who actually own crypto. “For starters, it means more people have crypto than have dogs,” he wrote. “It is, by any reasonable standard, one of the largest constituencies in the country.”
The NCA’s 2026 State of Crypto Holders Report dismantles old stereotypes. Women now make up 42% of new digital asset holders, compared to 34% among earlier adopters. Nearly a quarter of holders earn under $75,000, and construction and manufacturing workers account for over 21% of the holder base. Alderoty stressed that risk perception does not equal rejection, and that passing the CLARITY Act does not require endorsing any specific token—only setting basic consumer protections and innovation guardrails.
The legislative path remains tight. The bill advanced from the Senate Banking Committee in May with a 15–9 vote but needs 60 Senate votes, while sticking points over ethics language, anti-money laundering rules, and agency oversight persist. Meanwhile, crypto firms have spent $189 million on the 2026 election cycle, surpassing their entire 2024 total, with Ripple Labs, Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, and Foris DAX among top contributors.
