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Sep 9 Sep 11 Sep 13 Sep 14 Sep 16 $79.2k $78.0k $76.7k $75.5k 24h High High $77,146 24h Low Low $75,038 Vol Vol $1.6B Market projections Odds by Myriad Today $74,000 to $76,000 $74k–$76k 53 % chance This week Below $76,000 Below $76k 51 % chance Price data by CoinGecko CoinGecko More Bitcoin news and projections → 🏛️ The Clarity Act Falls 11 Votes Short
The Senate rejected cloture on the Clarity Act on Tuesday, 49 to 50 against a 60-vote threshold. Cynthia Lummis, the bill’s chief author, had already called it earlier in the day: “It’s over.”
In the aftermath, Bitcoin fell to $75,960, down 4% and its lowest since August 21. Ethereum lost 5.4% to $2,401, Solana 5.1% to $98.15, and XRP lost 9.4%.
Negotiations collapsed in the final hour. Staff for Tim Scott ended a last discussion on ethics provisions in Thom Tillis’s office, and the vote proceeded with nothing resolved. Republicans had conceded real ground in Sunday’s draft, adding state attorney general enforcement and divestment requirements that Trump signed off on. Democrats said it still wouldn’t reach the first family. Warner circulated a counterproposal hours before the vote. Susan Collins voted no from the Republican side.
Now, this was a procedural vote on whether to take up the bill at all, not final passage. It is still potentially possible to pass the bill this year, but time is now running out. The Senate breaks in early October for the midterms, and a Democratic takeover of either chamber in November makes 2027 harder than this week was. Odds of the bill passing in 2026 are now just 5% on Polymarket.
There was an immediate reaction from the crypto lobbyists in the aftermath. Stand With Crypto said it will score senators’ Clarity Act votes into its public lawmaker ratings ahead of November , with executive director Mason Lynaugh calling the failure a failure of leadership and promising crypto voters turn out at the ballot box.
Those same Crypto lobbyists spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars arguing it couldn’t function without statutory clarity. It lost that vote, and yet, almost nothing changes operationally. Selig has already directed CFTC staff to write rules under existing authority. The SEC proposed letting blockchains serve as official stock ownership records and holds its 24-hour trading roundtable Thursday. The CFTC moved to dismiss CME’s suit over perps. Coinbase filed to bring single-stock perps onshore. All of that happened in three weeks without a statute.
So where does this leave us? Well, effectively in the same place we were in. Rule changes are coming via CFTC and SEC guidance—they just won’t be permanent law. Law would’ve been better, but we will at least have 2 years of runway with the crypto-friendly CFTC and SEC ahead. Any market selloff based on this result is likely ill-advised. But of course, today has the FOMC meeting looming and a potential rate hike. A decision that could very well rattle markets…