Bitcoin Drops as Clarity Act Fails to Advance; Is Cathie Wood Selling Off Crypto Stocks?

According to Barron's, the 'Clarity Act'—a pivotal piece of legislation for cryptocurrency regulation—failed to make progress in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday (15th).

On that day, the Senate held a procedural vote on 'cloture,' which, if passed, would allow the bill to move toward a final vote. However, the final tally was 49 in favor and 50 opposed, preventing the bill from advancing further.

As a result, Bitcoin and stocks highly correlated with cryptocurrencies plunged. Coinbase (COIN-US), the cryptocurrency exchange, saw its share price drop 10% to $172.25.

This made Coinbase the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 index on that day. In fact, crypto-related stocks had surged over the past few months, as markets believed the chances of the Clarity Act passing had renewed momentum.

The vote was extremely close. Republican senators worked until the last moment to secure Democratic support and obtain enough votes to pass the bill. However, according to prediction market Polymarket, the market's estimated probability of the Clarity Act passing this year dropped from 31% on Monday to 19% on Tuesday.

Bitcoin fell to $76,092, a nearly 4% decline. Although Bitcoin remains up over 25% since early July, it is still down approximately 14% from early 2026 levels.

Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, dropped over 6% to $2,411. The popular 'altcoin' XRP fell nearly 12% to $1.29.

Strategy (MSTR-US), the company holding the largest amount of Bitcoin, saw its stock price fall 5.4%. It had risen 4.6% on Monday, only to give back some of those gains.

Per a trading notice, Cathie Wood's ARK Invest sold off cryptocurrency-related stocks on Monday. Funds under ARK sold shares in Bullish (BLSH-US), the parent company of CoinDesk; Coinbase; Circle Internet (CRCL-US), a stablecoin issuer; and Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR-US), an Ethereum treasury company.