XRP (XRP) fell by nearly 10% to $1.30 early Wednesday after the U.S. Senate dropped plans to advance the Clarity Act, sending Bitcoin (BTC) toward $76,000.
Key takeaway:
A procedural vote in the Senate ended 49 to 50, far from the 60 votes needed to move forward the bill regulating crypto assets.
XRP posts the steepest drop among large-cap coins, while Coinbase and Circle shares fall by around 9%.
Supporters of the text are divided between those who believe it has been buried and those still betting on a new vote.
XRP leads the selling wave
XRP fell nearly 10% to $1.30 during the Asian session, posting the worst performance among major tokens. Ether (ETH) dropped by nearly 5% to about $2,410, Solana (SOL) slid 5% to stay slightly above $97, and Dogecoin (DOGE) lost nearly 5%. Bitcoin slipped by about 3%, just above $76,000.
The move came after a procedural vote (cloture) on Tuesday, which ended in failure at 49–50, well below the 60 votes needed to open debate on the market-structure reform text, following several months of negotiations on ethics rules and compensation in stablecoins.
All the Democrats present opposed it, joined by Republicans Susan Collins, Josh Hawley, Jerry Moran and Thom Tillis, who voted no for procedural reasons so he could file a reconsideration motion.
Crypto prices have suffered more than the tokens themselves. The Coinbase stock fell by nearly 9%, Circle by more than 9%, while Galaxy Digital dropped 8% and Gemini slipped 7%. Bullish and Riot Platforms each lost 5%, while Robinhood, MARA Holdings and Core Scientific gave up between 3% and 4%.
Also to read: XRP futures at a 6-month high as usage grows faster than the price
Garlinghouse and Lummis step up
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse responded, saying « this hurts » and promising to closely analyze the reasons for the failure.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, the Wyoming Republican and the bill’s chief advocate in Congress, meanwhile said the proposal was almost dead after earlier in the day saying: « It’s over. »
Others, however, believe another attempt is still possible. The CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, Ji Hun Kim, called the outcome disappointing, while noting that the Tillis motion paves the way for a new final vote within two days. On X, Tillis said the text was not buried and credited the White House with enabling substantial bipartisan progress.
Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan wrote that the bill’s ethics provisions were too weak, arguing that President Donald Trump, his children, and members of his administration are raking in billions of dollars in cryptoassets. She also said the Commodity Futures Trading Commission did not have the human resources to enforce the law and warned about gaps in anti–money laundering and counter-terrorism financing safeguards.
This correction trimmed a strong late-summer rally for the token. XRP had risen 28.5% in August, its best August month since 2021, breaking from a historically bearish month (six declines in nine years). US spot XRP funds attracted $153.55 million over the period, although only $3.27 million arrived between August 3 and 14.
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