TL;DR
- The Bitcoin Coinbase Premium Index fell to -0.079 on Tuesday, its lowest level since August 16.
- The U.S. Senate failed to reach the 60 votes needed to advance the Clarity Act, putting pressure on local BTC demand.
- Short-term holders sent 34,000 Bitcoins to exchanges in just 24 hours, mostly at a loss, marking the largest inflow in the past month.
Bitcoin demand in the United States suffered a visible deterioration following the failure of the Clarity Act in the Senate, as the crypto bill failed to gather the 60 votes needed to move forward.
Data from onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant show that the Coinbase Premium Index fell to -0.079 on Tuesday, September 16, its lowest level since August 16, when the BTC/USD pair was trading around $63,000. At the start of the week the indicator had nearly touched positive territory with a value of 0.004, but the decline deepened throughout Monday.
The Coinbase Premium measures the price difference between the BTC/USDT pairs on Coinbase and Binance. A negative value indicates that the relative demand from Coinbase users is lower than that of Binance. This index has remained in negative territory for much of 2026; during that period, Bitcoin retreated from its all-time highs of $126,200, recorded in October 2025.
Bitcoin: The Clarity Act Divided Buyers and Sellers
Onchain analyst Willy Woo noted that the divergence between Coinbase sellers and those on global exchanges intensified around the day of the vote. Using cumulative volume delta (CVD) data by exchange since September 6, Woo observed that from September 11 onward, Binance‘s CVD began to rise while Coinbase’s continued to fall, with American sellers taking control.
“I see Americans selling on the failure of the Clarity Act on Coinbase, while the global offshore market keeps accumulating on Binance,” Woo wrote, describing the scenario as “bullish.”
Short-Term Holder Capitulation
The most recent investors were the main drivers of post-vote selling pressure. Short-term holders, defined as wallets holding an unspent transaction output for less than six months, sent up to 34,000 Bitcoins to exchanges over a 24-hour period, mostly at prices below those of their last onchain movement.
CryptoQuant reported in a blog post that 23,200 BTC were transferred at a loss, constituting the largest capitulation event for this segment recorded in the past month. The bill, without sufficient votes to advance, leaves few alternatives for returning to regulatory debate before 2027.
