XRP Slides 10% After Senate Blocks Clarity Act

XRP sank nearly 10% to $1.30 during Asian hours on Wednesday, the weakest performance among major tokens, after the U.S. Senate failed to advance the Clarity Act, CoinDesk data showed. Ether fell almost 5% to about $2,410. Solana dropped 5% to just above $97 and dogecoin slid nearly 5%. Zcash and Hyperliquid's HYPE were each down close to 4%. Bitcoin slipped nearly 3% to a touch above $76,000. BNB and tron posted the smallest declines, down roughly 1% each. The bill failed on a 49–50 cloture vote, the procedural step that requires 60 senators to move legislation to debate, with multiple Republicans voting against it. Negotiators had assembled more than 600 pages of compromise language. The sticking point was an ethics provision aimed at preventing senior government officials from retaining crypto business interests. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, said she voted no because "the ethics provisions in this bill are simply too thin," citing President Donald Trump, his children and members of his Cabinet earning money in crypto. She also argued the Commodity Futures Trading Commission does not have enough staff to implement the law and said the proposal left gaps related to money laundering and terrorist financing. Crypto-related stocks fell more sharply than the tokens. Coinbase dropped nearly 9% to $174.42 and Circle declined more than 9% to $88.26. Galaxy Digital fell 8% and Gemini slid 7%. Bullish and Riot Platforms each lost 5%, eToro fell 4%, and Robinhood, MARA Holdings, CleanSpark, IREN and Core Scientific declined between 3% and 4%. Attention now shifts to the regulators the legislation was designed to constrain. The Securities and Exchange Commission is already working on its proposed Reg Crypto framework and rules for tokenized securities, which now becomes the main path to the regulatory certainty the industry had sought from Congress. Industry political action committees, including Fairshake, will also weigh how to approach senators who voted no ahead of the Nov. 3 election, with a new Congress set to convene in January 2027. Markets also face a Federal Reserve rate decision later Wednesday. Traders are leaning toward a quarter-point hike, as the decision lands amid a broader risk-off tone following the collapse of the bill's legislative push.