XRP (XRP) fell nearly 10% to $1.30 early Wednesday after the U.S. Senate failed to advance the Clarity Act, dragging Bitcoin (BTC) toward $76,000.
Key Points:
- A 49-50 Senate procedural vote fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance the crypto market structure bill.
- XRP led losses among major tokens, while Coinbase and Circle shares dropped about 9%.
- Supporters are split on whether the bill is finished or can come back for another vote.
XRP Leads Sell-Off
XRP dropped nearly 10% to $1.30 during Asian morning hours, the weakest performance among the largest tokens. Ether (ETH) lost nearly 5% to about $2,410, while Solana (SOL) fell 5% to just above $97 and Dogecoin (DOGE) dropped nearly 5%. Bitcoin slipped nearly 3% to just above $76,000.
The declines came after a 49-50 cloture vote on Tuesday failed to reach the 60 votes needed to move the market structure bill to debate, following months of talks over ethics rules and stablecoin rewards.
All Democrats present opposed the motion, joined by Republican Sens. Susan Collins, Josh Hawley, Jerry Moran and Thom Tillis, who voted no for procedural reasons so he could enter a motion to reconsider.
Crypto stocks took a harder hit than the tokens themselves. Coinbase shares fell nearly 9%, and Circle lost more than 9%, while Galaxy Digital dropped 8% and Gemini lost 7%. Bullish and Riot Platforms each lost 5%, while Robinhood, MARA Holdings and Core Scientific declined between 3% and 4%.
Also Read: XRP Futures Reach 6-Month High As Utility Growth Outpaces Price
Garlinghouse, Lummis React
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse posted that "this one stings" and promised a closer look at why the effort collapsed. Sen.
Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican and the bill's biggest backer in Congress, declared the bill all but dead after saying earlier in the day, "It's over."
Others still see room to regroup. Crypto Council for Innovation CEO Ji Hun Kim called the result disappointing but noted that Tillis' motion allows another cloture vote within two days. Tillis insisted in a post on X that the bill was not finished and credited the White House with helping lawmakers make substantial bipartisan progress.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, wrote that the bill's ethics provisions were too thin, arguing that President Donald Trump, his children and his Cabinet are making billions of dollars in crypto. She also said the Commodity Futures Trading Commission lacks the staff to carry out the law and warned of gaps on money laundering and terrorist financing.
The sell-off cuts into a strong late-summer run for the token. XRP climbed 28.5% in August, its best August since 2021 and a break from a month it had lost six times in nine years. U.S. spot XRP funds took in $153.55 million that month, though only $3.27 million arrived between Aug. 3 and Aug. 14.
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