TL;DR:
- Bitcoin dropped from around $77,000 to a monthly low near $75,000 after the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, before recovering below $76,000.
- XRP fell another 8% below $1.30, while Ether, Solana, Dogecoin, Monero, Hyperliquid, Chainlink, Cardano and Stellar also suffered significant losses.
- Attention now shifts to the Federal Reserve’s Wednesday rate decision, which could either stabilize sentiment or trigger another volatile repricing across an already fragile crypto market.
Bitcoin fell sharply after the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, sliding from around $77,000 to a monthly low near $75,000 before recovering slightly below $76,000. The drop followed several days of unstable trading, including a brief surge toward $79,800 after U.S. CPI data matched expectations. The failed cloture vote immediately translated political disappointment into renewed selling across the crypto market. Bitcoin’s market capitalization fell to about $1.520 trillion, while its dominance over altcoins climbed to 59%, showing that smaller assets absorbed even heavier pressure during the retreat.
XRP was among the weakest major tokens, dropping another 8% and falling below $1.30 after recently being rejected near $1.50. Ethereum declined 3% toward $2,400, while Solana, Dogecoin, Monero and Hyperliquid posted similar losses. Chainlink and Cardano each fell about 5%, and Stellar dropped 10% to roughly $0.175. The broad selloff hit altcoins especially hard, particularly assets that had been expected to benefit from progress on U.S. crypto market-structure legislation. Bitcoin and Zcash were among the few names showing relative resilience as total crypto capitalization slipped below $2.6 trillion.
Fed Decision Becomes the Market’s Next Major Test
With the CLARITY Act setback now absorbed, attention has shifted almost immediately toward the Federal Reserve’s upcoming interest-rate decision. Crypto traders are moving from one major policy catalyst to another with little time for the market to stabilize. Bitcoin’s sudden fall to $75,000 after the Senate result showed how sensitive positioning remains to political developments, while the earlier CPI-driven swing from $77,000 to $76,000 and then nearly $79,800 demonstrated similarly abrupt reactions to macroeconomic information. The Fed announcement could therefore extend the volatility if expectations around rates are surprised.
The sequence leaves Bitcoin technically fragile while altcoins face even steeper short-term damage. BTC has recovered from the monthly low but remains below the $76,000 area and well beneath the $79,500 level reached Monday afternoon. The market now depends on whether the Fed can calm risk sentiment or trigger another wave of selling after the legislative disappointment. With XRP below $1.30, Ether near $2,400 and the total market down more than 2.3% in a day, Wednesday’s policy decision has become the next immediate test for a crypto market already shaken by the failed Senate vote. Markets remain vulnerable to another abrupt repricing if policymakers deliver an outcome that conflicts with fragile trader expectations.
