Bitcoin adds to losses, falls nearly 4% after Clarity Act fails Senate vote

Chloe Harper September 16, 2026

Bitcoin extended losses on Tuesday after a key legislation on cryptocurrencies and digital assets failed to pass a U.S. Senate vote. Sentiment had already been under pressure earlier due to a combination of surging U.S. Treasury yields and oil prices.

The world’s largest crypto fell 3.8% to $75,748.2 by 17:43 ET (21:43 GMT).

Senate squashes Clarity Act with a 49-50 vote

The Clarity Act, a landmark bill to create a regulatory structure for cryptocurrencies and digital assets, failed to pass the U.S. Senate in a 49-50 vote. The legislation had cleared the U.S. Senate Banking Committee in May, but had stalled since amid an inability to wrangle the 60 votes needed for approval.

One senator out of 100 did not vote. Every Republican voted in favor, except Senators Susan Collins (Maine), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Jerry Moran (Kan.), and Thom Tillis (N.C.).

Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), who spearheaded efforts to wrangle Democratic support for the Clarity Act, on Monday had said that the latest text of the bill would meet Democratic demands as it contained President Donald Trump’s agreement to new ethics provisions.

“This afternoon, Senate Democrats proved they were never truly serious about protecting consumers and preserving American leadership. I sat at the table with Senate Democrats working in good faith to get this done while they played games,” Lummis said on social media on Tuesday after the Senate vote.

“For over a year, they presented demands and the second we met them, they made new demands and moved the goal posts,” she added.

Other disagreements over the Clarity Act had centered around its treatment of yield payments on stablecoins, and its proposed division of digital asset regulation between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The crypto industry had a more measured response to the setback. Top Bitcoin corporate holder Strategy posted a graphic on social media titled “Bitcoin’s U.S. Status Does Not Depend on CLARITY” and said “Bitcoin has had legal and regulatory clarity in the U.S. for years.”

Meanwhile, tZERO, a provider of blockchain infrastructure and regulated trading platforms for digital and traditional assets, said the Senate vote did not “change” the “trajectory” of the “structural shift toward regulated digital asset markets” that was already underway.

“Other paths remain open, including proposed rulemaking and increasing coordination between the SEC and CFTC over digital assets. Institutions will continue to adopt blockchain-based market infrastructure because the secure, regulated rails they require are increasingly available today,” tZERO added.

Yields, oil rise ahead of Fed

Away from crypto regulation, risk sentiment on Tuesday took a beating from climbing Treasury yields and oil prices a day ahead of a widely anticipated Federal Reserve interest rate hike.

According to the CME FedWatch tool, the chances of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announcing a 25 basis point rate hike on Wednesday stand at 94%, up from 59% a week ago. Higher rate environments tend to weigh on speculative assets such as crypto.

The rise in rate hike expectations has been driven by a relentless rout in the U.S. bond market, inflationary concerns from spiking oil prices, recent U.S. labor market and inflation data, and increasingly hawkish commentary from Fed policymakers.

The U.S. 10-year yield, which is used as the benchmark for everything from mortgages to corporate debt to student loans, added 4.5 basis points to close at 5.006% on Tuesday, hitting its highest level since April 2007. The 30-year yield took out a fresh high of over 24 years.

The bond sell-off has also been sparked by concerns over the billions of dollars being poured into the artificial intelligence infrastructure buildout, and ballooning U.S. fiscal debt.

Meanwhile, oil marched higher on Tuesday, with Brent crude futures, the global benchmark, climbing 2.7% to settle at $108.51 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures jumped 4.1% to settle at $105.52 a barrel. The latest advance was driven by reports that oil loadings at a critical Saudi Arabian Red Sea port had been suspended and that Libya had halted operations at three oilfields.

It now remains to be seen whether the Fed will deliver its first rate hike in over three years, especially against a political backdrop of President Donald Trump putting pressure on Fed Chair Kevin Warsh to cut rates and midterm elections in November.

Two Robinhood employees hit with fraud charges

Elsewhere, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday unsealed fraud charges against Hefu Chai and Huaisong Xiang, engineers at Robinhood Markets.

“Misappropriating confidential information to trade in the derivatives markets for personal benefit is illegal. That is exactly what we allege Hefu Chai and Huaisong Xiang have done,” U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said in a statement.

The engineers allegedly ran a scheme to misappropriate confidential business information from Robinhood and use it to trade perpetual futures on Hyperliquid, a decentralized derivatives exchange.