The U.S. Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act on Sept. 15, halting attempts to establish a unified federal regulatory framework for cryptocurrency markets while Bitcoin dropped sharply below $76,000.
The cloture vote on the motion to proceed fell short at 49-50, missing the 60-vote supermajority required to advance to debate, resulting in a procedural defeat.
The legislation aimed to replace the sector’s fragmented oversight with uniform federal rules governing the issuance, trading, and sale of digital assets. Its failure leaves the broader market-structure reform effort unresolved and denies proponents an immediate route to floor debate.
The Senate had scheduled the vote for approximately 2:15 p.m. ET, but the result fell far short of the required supermajority, converting a closely watched policy test into fresh uncertainty for crypto businesses and investors.
Bitcoin’s Decline Preceded the Vote
Bitcoin reached an intraday low of $74,967.97 on Sept. 15, having already dipped below $76,000 before the vote. The altcoin market cap dropped 3.6% over the same period but remained above $1.15 trillion.
Traders were also bracing for a Federal Reserve decision, adding further pressure across risk assets.
The chronology shows that political disappointment arrived in a market already moving lower, supporting the view that the vote contributed to afternoon weakness but was not the origin of the full-day decline.
Leverage was also being unwound before senators voted. CoinGlass registered over $300 million in liquidations 20 minutes after the vote, with the 24-hour reading surpassing $665 million at the same mark.
For the crypto industry, the immediate consequence is legislative delay: the CLARITY Act did not secure the votes needed to begin debate. For Bitcoin, the next signal is whether selling steadies once traders absorb both the policy setback and the separate monetary-policy risk already weighing on the market.