The US Senate voted on Sept. 15 to reject a procedural motion to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, falling short of the required threshold and leaving efforts to establish a federal framework for crypto markets stalled.
The cloture vote on the motion to proceed failed with a 49-50 tally, falling 11 votes short of the 60-vote threshold needed to move the measure to floor debate. The bill was designed to replace the industry's fragmented regulatory environment with uniform federal rules covering the issuance, trading, and sale of digital assets. The defeat leaves federal crypto market-structure rules unresolved and removes an immediate path to floor debate.
The Senate scheduled the vote for approximately 2:15 p.m. ET, turning a closely watched policy test into an additional source of uncertainty for crypto investors and businesses.
Bitcoin and Market Slump Began Prior to the Vote
Bitcoin was already sliding before the Senate tally, hitting an intraday low of $74,967.97 on Sept. 15 and dropping below $76,000. In the same period, the altcoin market capitalization fell 3.6%, though it managed to hold above $1.15 trillion.
Market participants were also positioning themselves ahead of an upcoming Federal Reserve decision, which added further pressure across risk assets. Because the crypto selloff and unwinding of leverage had already begun before the vote, the political outcome coincided with afternoon market weakness rather than serving as the origin of the full-day decline.
Liquidation Volumes Surge
Data from CoinGlass showed that traders were actively unwinding leveraged positions prior to and during the vote. CoinGlass recorded more than $300 million in liquidations just 20 minutes after the vote, with the total 24-hour reading exceeding $665 million at that same mark.
For the broader crypto industry, the immediate outcome is a legislative delay. For Bitcoin and other risk assets, attention shifts to whether selling pressure will stabilize as markets absorb both the policy setback and ongoing monetary policy risks.
