11 Votes Behind! U.S. Senate Vetoes The Clarity Act, Bitcoin Falls Below 76,000, 115,000 Liquidated Overnight

In the early hours of September 16 Beijing time, the cryptocurrency market plunged across the board: Bitcoin briefly fell below $76,000 and intraday dipped below the $75,000 mark, marking its lowest level since late August; Ethereum fell below $2,400, XRP plunged over 10%, and SOL dropped over 5%. According to CoinGlass statistics, over 115,000 people were liquidated in the market in the past 24 hours, with total liquidations exceeding $666 million, of which 85% were long positions. US crypto concept stocks plunged simultaneously: Circle fell over 11%, Coinbase over 10%, Bitmine over 8%, Strategy down over 5%, and Robinhood down over 3%.

What is the bill, and where is the death stage?

The Clarity Act was proposed by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Hill in May 2025, with three core issues: establishing a regulatory framework for the digital asset market structure, defining the authority boundaries between the SEC and CFTC (for eligible digital commodities like Bitcoin under CFTC regulation), and establishing registration, information disclosure, and customer protection systems for trading platforms and brokers.

Its legislative process was originally quite smooth: in July 2025, it passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 294 to 134, and on May 14 this year, it passed the Senate Banking Committee by a vote of 15 to 9, entering the negotiation phase before a full vote. The industry invested hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying funds for a long-term rule legislated by Congress and unaffected by the transition of leadership, which is the essential difference between it and regulatory "rules."

All Democratic lawmakers plus at least three Republicans (Collins in Maine, Holly in Missouri, Moran in Kansas) voted against it; North Carolina Republican Senator Tillis temporarily switched his vote against after voting and immediately submitted a motion for "reconsideration," a procedural move that technically preserves the possibility of the bill's revival. Republican Senator Loomis, who had pushed the bill for years, declared after the vote: "The bill is dead." This is purely political maneuvering by Democrats.

According to financial disclosures Trump submitted to the U.S. Office of Ethics, he will report about $1.4 billion in revenue from crypto business in 2025, with World Liberty Financial contributing over $500 million from governance token sales and other sources. It is unprecedented for a sitting president to earn this amount of money from the industry he oversees. The bill does contain ethical clauses, but Democrats consider them mere formalities: the provisions are enforced by the Department of Justice, and Attorney General Blanche was Trump's former personal lawyer.

The Republican side actually made last-minute concessions before the vote. The "final text" released on September 14 claimed to have absorbed 126 substantial changes from Democratic negotiators, including: banning federally elected officials and their spouses from issuing cryptocurrencies (which would effectively halt Trump's own $TRUMP meme coin, which Trump has said to comply), requiring officials to dispose of "significant" crypto holdings, expanding the enforcement powers of state attorneys general, and granting the Treasury Secretary the power to activate a "circuit breaker" for up to 18 months when stablecoins cause large outflows of community bank deposits.

But the boundaries of the concessions were exposed: the requirement to dispose of holdings did not extend to other family members such as the president's children, and the definition of "significant holdings" was criticized as too loose to be bypassed. Arizona Democratic Senator Gallego criticized the most bluntly: "Republicans care more about ensuring the president can keep making money, rather than really pushing for regulation." Democratic negotiators like Warner and Warren reiterated before the vote that the flaws in the conflict of interest clause are unacceptable.

Is the bill completely hopeless?

Strictly speaking, rejecting the procedural vote does not mean the bill is permanently rejected; in theory, the text can be amended and restarted, and Tillis's motion for reconsideration also preserves technical channels. But the reality is quite harsh: with the November 3 midterm elections approaching, Congress will enter its campaign cycle, leaving little legislative timeline for negotiations; and once Democrats retake the Senate or House, the chances of passing the bill will drop further. Most institutions judge that the industry won't be waiting for this bill this year.

During the regulatory vacuum, the baton is passed back to regulators. As early as August 18, the SEC proposed the "Regulation Crypto Assets" rule, designing registration exemptions and a "safe harbor" mechanism for some crypto investment contracts; SEC Chairman Atkins has clearly stated that the bill will continue to advance regardless of its progress. Compared to congressional legislation, the problem with executive rules is that they can be overturned by the next administration, which is precisely why the industry has been persistently committed to legislation in recent years.

Looking ahead, there are three key observation points: first, the reconsideration window after the Tillis motion—whether the Republicans will gamble on another procedural vote before the midterm elections; second, the pace of implementation of administrative rules by the SEC and CFTC, which determines the actual length of the regulatory vacuum; third, the market itself. Bernstein expects the crypto market to bottom out in the third and fourth quarters and regain momentum before the midterm elections.