Bitcoin dropped to $75,000 after the US Senate voted against advancing the CLARITY Act on September 15, but quickly recovered and exceeded $81,000 by Friday. The vote did not introduce new restrictions on self-custody, but preserved the existing regulatory patchwork. Experts said the outcome was largely priced in, and that US regulators are expected to continue using their existing authority, with the SEC already moving to exempt certain tokenized-stock trading.
Bitcoin fell to $75,000 immediately after the US Senate voted against advancing the CLARITY Act on September 15. The price has since recovered all losses and exceeded $81,000 on Friday.
Alvin Kan, COO at Bitget Wallet, noted that the result should not be interpreted as Washington reversing its stance on the digital asset industry. “The CLARITY Act’s failure to advance has preserved the current US regulatory patchwork,” he said.
The legislation aimed to establish clearer boundaries between the SEC and the CFTC and create federal rules for crypto markets. Its failure leaves much of that work with regulators instead of Congress.
Kan explained that the vote did not introduce new restrictions on self-custody or self-hosted wallets. However, protections included in the proposed legislation remain without the stronger statutory foundation the bill could have provided.
These protections covered users controlling their own assets and developers providing non-custodial software. Kan argued that continued uncertainty affects smaller companies disproportionately.
Data from Electric Capital showed that the US share of global crypto developers dropped from 38% in 2015 to 19%. The country also captured between 2% and 5% of centralized-exchange volume growth between 2024 and 2025.
The CLARITY Act is not technically dead, as a procedural vote by Senator Thom Tillis preserves the possibility of reconsideration. The legislative calendar makes passage this year increasingly difficult.
Both main regulatory bodies are expected to continue using their existing authority. The SEC moved this week to introduce a five-week exemption facilitating certain tokenized-stock trading.
Iliya Kalchev, Nexo Dispatch analyst, commented on BTC’s price reaction. He indicated that the $3,000 drop to $75,000 should not be dismissed easily.
The subsequent rebound shows that the vote was “already priced in beforehand, as markets treated a failed vote as the likely outcome for weeks; so this looked more like confirmation than surprise.” Kalchev concluded that “the US has already shown it will legislate crypto piece by piece when the politics allow it.”
