Bitcoin slides as Clarity Act fails Senate cloture vote

The Senate failed to invoke cloture on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. Senators voted 49 in favor and 50 against. The bill needed 60 votes to advance to debate. The bill also needed at least seven Democrats to support it. Tuesday's vote was on a cloture motion for H.R. 3633. It was not a final vote on the bill. Cloture determines whether the Senate can move to formal debate. The failed vote effectively ended the bill's chances for 2026. About 22 working days remained on the Senate calendar before midterm campaigning takes over. Bitcoin fell 1.3% in the last hour during the vote. Bitcoin was down almost 4% on the day and traded around $76,000. Bitcoin traded as high as $77,200 shortly before the vote began. Bitcoin fell from roughly $76,900 to a session low near $75,600 in about 10 minutes around 2:30 p.m. ET. The decline began after the no vote tally climbed past 40. Bitcoin's September peak was near $82,000. The overall crypto market lost nearly 3%. A post-vote panic had pushed losses to more than 4.2% before the market quickly recovered. Polymarket odds of the Clarity Act becoming law in 2026 fell to 17% by Tuesday morning. The odds were about 34% on Monday. Republicans had rejected a Democratic counteroffer just hours before the vote. Sen. Cynthia Lummis wrote before the vote that failure would possibly be final. Lummis said there was no more room to negotiate the bill's language with Democrats. Lummis said Republicans had delivered more than 120 changes that Democrats had requested over the past year. Senate Banking ranking member Elizabeth Warren opposed the bill in a floor speech. Warren warned that the bill would spark a crypto-fueled economic crash if approved. Banks wanted language banning crypto firms from paying yield on stablecoins. Banks argued that such payments would pull deposits from traditional accounts. Eight banking trade groups sought tighter restrictions days before the vote. Democrats wanted stronger conflict-of-interest rules because of Trump's personal crypto holdings. Software developers wanted explicit protection from criminal liability for building non-custodial tools. Senate Republicans released a revised 630-page draft late Sunday night. The draft added a state attorney general enforcement role on ethics. The draft also softened the developer-liability language. The changes did not secure enough Democratic support. The Digital Chamber called the result a setback rather than a defeat. The group said it remained committed to passing comprehensive digital asset regulation. The SEC and CFTC's rulemaking process is now the nearest regulatory timeline for U.S. crypto markets in 2026 if legislation stalls. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had pointed to that process as a fallback.