Bitcoin dropped to a multi-week low of $75,000 after the US Senate voted against advancing the CLARITY Act on September 15, then recovered and topped $81,000 by Friday. Crypto experts say the vote preserves the existing regulatory patchwork rather than signaling new restrictions, though smaller firms face continued uncertainty.
Bitcoin's price dropped to a multi-week low of $75,000 immediately after the US Senate voted against advancing the CLARITY Act on September 15. The coin has since recovered all losses and exceeded $81,000 on Friday.
Uncertainty, not a new crackdown
The vote fell short of the 60 senators required to move the legislation forward. Alvin Kan, COO at Bitget Wallet, said the result should not be read as Washington reversing its stance on the digital asset industry by imposing new restrictions. According to Kan: "The CLARITY Act's failure to advance has preserved the current US regulatory patchwork".
The legislation aimed to draw clearer boundaries between the SEC and the CFTC and to create federal rules covering crypto markets and intermediaries. Its failure, however, 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. Protections included in the proposed bill remain in place but without the stronger statutory foundation the legislation could have provided, including provisions covering users who control their own assets and developers who build non-custodial software.
Smaller firms bear the brunt
Bitget Wallet's COO argued that continued uncertainty affects smaller companies disproportionately. Recent data from Electric Capital showed the US share of global crypto developers has dropped from 38% in 2015 to 19%. The country also captured between 2% and 5% of centralized-exchange volume growth between 2024 and 2025.
Source: CryptoPotato
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