XRP took the sharpest hit among major cryptocurrencies Wednesday after the U.S. Senate failed to advance the Clarity Act, turning a closely watched regulatory vote into another source of market stress.
The token fell nearly 10% to around $1.30 during Asian morning hours, according to CoinDesk data. Bitcoin slipped almost 3% to just above $76,000, while ether, solana and dogecoin each dropped about 5%.
The selloff followed a 49-50 cloture vote that stopped the bill before it could move to debate. The procedural hurdle required 60 senators, leaving the legislation 11 votes short.
For the crypto industry, the result landed after negotiators had assembled more than 600 pages of compromise language. Instead of becoming a milestone for clearer market rules, the bill stalled at the Senate door.
XRP Leads a Crypto Selloff With Politics at the Center
XRP was the standout loser among the largest tokens, but it was hardly alone. Zcash and Hyperliquid’s HYPE each declined close to 4%, while BNB and tron were down roughly 1%, making them the least affected among the major assets listed.
The proposed legislation had become closely tied to the industry’s hopes for a clearer regulatory framework in the United States. Its failure now shifts more attention toward regulators, particularly the Securities and Exchange Commission.
One of the most contentious parts of the compromise involved ethics rules designed to prevent senior government officials from retaining crypto-related business interests.
Senator Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, said she opposed the bill because “the ethics provisions in this bill are simply too thin,” specifically pointing to President Donald Trump, his children and members of his Cabinet making money from crypto.
Slotkin also argued that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission does not have enough staff to enforce the proposed law. She cited remaining gaps involving money laundering and terrorist financing as additional reasons for her vote.
The political fallout arrived quickly in markets. Crypto-related stocks fell even more sharply than the tokens themselves.
Coinbase dropped nearly 9% to $174.42, while Circle lost more than 9% to $88.26. Galaxy Digital fell about 8% and Gemini declined 7%. Bullish and Riot Platforms each dropped 5%, while eToro fell roughly 4%.
Robinhood, MARA Holdings, CleanSpark, IREN and Core Scientific all posted declines of between 3% and 4%.
For investors watching XRP, the reaction underscored how tightly crypto prices remain connected to Washington’s regulatory machinery. The immediate market response was not limited to one token or one company; it spread across exchanges, infrastructure firms and major digital assets.
The next chapter now moves away from Congress and back toward regulators. The SEC is already working on its proposed Reg Crypto framework, as well as rules covering tokenized securities.
That process has suddenly gained more attention because the legislation designed to provide congressional certainty has stalled.
Meanwhile, crypto political action committees, including Fairshake, face decisions about how to respond to the senators who voted against advancing the bill ahead of the Nov. 3 election. A new Congress is scheduled to convene in January 2027.
For XRP, the immediate story remains the price reaction. But the broader story is about where crypto regulation goes next after the Senate failed to clear one of the industry’s biggest legislative pushes.
And the timing adds another layer of tension. The Federal Reserve was due to decide on interest rates later Wednesday, with traders leaning toward a quarter-point hike.
That decision was set to arrive after markets had already absorbed two pieces of uncertainty at once: a stalled path to crypto legislation and another major macroeconomic event waiting in the wings.