US Senate Blocks Clarity Act, Bitcoin Drops Sharply
SingTao · 2 SOURCESabout 2 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
The US Senate on Tuesday rejected a procedural motion to advance the Clarity Act, a major cryptocurrency market-structure bill that needed 60 votes to move forward. The failed vote immediately hit crypto prices and related shares, with Bitcoin briefly falling below US$75,000 and major industry stocks sliding.
Key Points
- The procedural vote failed 49-50 in the Senate on Tuesday, short of the 60 votes required to move the Clarity Act to the next stage
- The bill was designed to give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission primary authority over the digital-asset industry under a clearer federal framework
- Democrats said the bill's ethics provisions were too weak in addressing President Donald Trump's cryptocurrency business interests and potential corruption concerns.
- Republican senators Susan Collins and Josh Hawley voted with Democrats, while pro-crypto Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand also ultimately opposed further progress
- After the vote, Coinbase fell more than 12% intraday before closing down 10.1% at US$172.1, Circle dropped 11.4%, Bitcoin touched US$74,973, and Ether fell 4.5% to US$2,398.
Why It Matters
For Hong Kong investors and firms tracking US digital-asset policy, the failed vote prolongs regulatory uncertainty in the world's largest capital market and may affect capital allocation, business location decisions and the pace of institutional crypto adoption. Attention now shifts back to US regulators after CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said the agency had been studying possible crypto rules while awaiting the bill's outcome, and Trump crypto adviser Patrick Witt urged the CFTC and SEC to act with existing powers