XRP sinks 10% as the Clarity Act fails and bitcoin slides toward $76,000

A failed procedural vote in the U.S. Senate rattled cryptocurrency markets, with XRP suffering the biggest drop among major tokens after the Clarity Act did not reach the 60 votes required to proceed to debate. The cloture tally was 49-50, leaving negotiators' more than 600 pages of compromise text unable to move forward. Lawmakers split over ethics language, regulatory staffing and anti-money-laundering and counterterrorist financing provisions, which together scuttled the bill.

The market reaction was broad. XRP fell almost 10% to $1.30, while ether declined nearly 5% to about $2,410 and solana and dogecoin each lost roughly 5%. Bitcoin slipped close to 3% to just above $76,000. Smaller tokens such as zcash and HYPE fell about 4%, while BNB and tron were relatively resilient, each down about 1%.

Publicly traded crypto companies saw deeper losses than many tokens. Coinbase shares dropped nearly 9% to $174.42 and Circle fell more than 9% to $88.26. Galaxy Digital and Gemini declined about 8% and 7% respectively, with other mining and trading firms—including Bullish, Riot Platforms, eToro, Robinhood, MARA Holdings, CleanSpark, IREN and Core Scientific—also registering mid-single-digit to low-double-digit losses.

Lawmakers and industry voices pointed to specific sticking points. Opponents cited insufficient ethics safeguards intended to prevent senior officials from retaining crypto business interests, and concerns that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission lacked the staffing to implement the statute. Senator Elissa Slotkin said she voted against the measure for those reasons and because she believed it left gaps on money laundering and terrorist financing oversight.

With the Clarity Act stalled, attention turns to federal regulators as the remaining path for rulemaking. The Securities and Exchange Commission is developing a 'Reg Crypto' framework and rules for tokenized securities that industry participants had hoped Congress would resolve. Political action committees and industry groups also face decisions about how to treat senators who opposed the bill ahead of the Nov. 3 election, and a newly elected Congress will take office in January 2027. Meanwhile, markets awaited a Federal Reserve decision later the same day, where traders were leaning toward a quarter-point rate hike that could further shape risk sentiment.