Bitcoin ETFs Had Their Worst Day Since June Following Failed Clarity Act Vote

U.S. crypto ETFs experienced their sharpest single-session retreat since June after the Senate failed to move the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act forward. Spot Bitcoin products led the pullback, shedding $450.4 million, while Ethereum ETFs lost another $142.3 million; XRP funds showed little net change following a small inflow the previous day. Combined outflows across the three asset groups reached roughly $593 million. Major fund providers saw uneven losses. Fidelity's FBTC recorded the largest withdrawal at $214.8 million, followed by BlackRock's IBIT at $161.7 million and Grayscale's GBTC at $44.1 million. Smaller outflows hit ARK 21Shares and Bitwise products. The sector-wide move was not triggered by a security breach or a sudden price crash, but coincided with the Senate's procedural defeat. Senators voted 49 to 50 against invoking cloture on the Clarity Act, a procedural threshold that required 60 votes to advance the bill to full debate. The measure aimed to divide oversight of digital-asset markets between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a change proponents said would provide legal certainty for most crypto trading. On the floor, Senate Banking's ranking Democrat, Elizabeth Warren, opposed the bill, and lead negotiator Sen. Cynthia Lummis said the vote likely spelled the bill's end. With the bill stalled, observers and some officials pointed to agency rulemaking as the most immediate route to regulatory guidance for the remainder of 2026. The report noted there were about 22 working days left on the Senate calendar before midterm campaigning limits the session, and a crypto trade group described the outcome as a setback rather than an outright defeat. Market participants also had another near-term consideration: a widely expected Federal Reserve decision that many saw as the first interest-rate increase in three years, which could also be weighing on flows into risk assets including crypto ETFs.