Bitcoin Slips After Senate Blocks Cloture on Digital Asset Market Clarity Act

Bitcoin fell as the U.S. Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act after a key procedural vote on Tuesday. Senators voted 49-50 on a cloture motion for H.R. 3633, short of the 60 votes required to open formal debate. The measure also needed at least seven Democrats to back it. The vote was not final passage, but the failed cloture effort is widely seen as shutting down the bill's prospects for 2026, with roughly 22 working days left on the Senate calendar before midterm campaigning dominates. Bitcoin dropped 1.3% in the last hour around the vote, sliding nearly 4% on the day to about $76,000. It had traded as high as $77,200 shortly before proceedings began. Around 2:30 p.m. ET, it fell from roughly $76,900 to an intraday low near $75,600 in about 10 minutes as the "no" tally moved beyond 40. Bitcoin's September high was near $82,000. The broader crypto market declined close to 3%; a brief post-vote selloff pushed losses past 4.2% before prices stabilized. Market expectations shifted quickly. On Polymarket, odds of the Clarity Act becoming law in 2026 fell to 17% by Tuesday morning from about 34% on Monday. The vote followed a late breakdown in negotiations. Republicans rejected a Democratic counterproposal just hours beforehand. Sen. Cynthia Lummis wrote ahead of the vote that failure could be final, saying there was no remaining room to negotiate bill language with Democrats and that Republicans had incorporated more than 120 changes Democrats requested over the past year. Opposition also intensified. Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren argued on the floor that the bill could trigger a "crypto-fueled" economic crash. Banking groups pressed for provisions that would bar crypto firms from paying yield on stablecoins, warning such payments could draw deposits away from traditional accounts. Eight banking trade groups urged tighter restrictions in the days leading up to the vote. Democrats also sought stronger conflict-of-interest rules, citing President Donald Trump's personal crypto holdings. Software developers pushed for clearer protections from criminal liability for building noncustodial tools. Senate Republicans released a revised 630-page draft late Sunday night. It added an enforcement role for state attorneys general tied to ethics and softened language around developer liability. The revisions still failed to attract sufficient Democratic support. The Digital Chamber described the outcome as a setback rather than a defeat and said it remains committed to advancing comprehensive digital asset regulation. With legislation stalled, the SEC and CFTC rulemaking process now stands as the closest regulatory pathway for U.S. crypto markets in 2026, a fallback Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has previously highlighted.