Shares tied to crypto assets slid Tuesday after the U.S. Senate failed to move forward the CLARITY Act, dealing another setback to efforts to define how digital-asset activity should be regulated. Coinbase and Circle both dropped sharply, while publicly traded Bitcoin treasury and mining-related companies also joined the selloff.

According to Yahoo Finance data, Coinbase fell about 10% and Circle slid roughly the same magnitude. Bitcoin treasury-focused firms were hit as well: American Bitcoin reportedly dropped around 8%, while Strategy and Strive each declined about 5%. Among miners, Riot Platforms fell approximately 6%, CleanSpark nearly 5%, Hut 8 fell more than 4%, and IREN dropped almost 4%.

Key takeaways

• The Senate’s failure to advance a procedural step for the CLARITY Act kept the bill short of the 60 votes needed to reach the floor.
• Crypto-linked equities fell broadly, suggesting traders viewed regulatory clarity as a near-term catalyst.
• The bill now faces limited remaining time in the current legislative calendar, with fewer than 36 days before a new Congress begins after November’s midterms.
• Bitcoin dipped briefly below $75,000 before recovering to around $76,000 at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko data.

Senate procedural defeat reshapes the regulatory timeline

The drop in crypto-exposed stocks followed a Senate vote on a cloture motion intended to bring the CLARITY Act to the chamber for consideration. The motion fell short of the 60-vote threshold required to proceed, according to coverage linked in the report from Cointelegraph: US Senate fails to advance CLARITY Act.

The CLARITY Act is designed to establish a framework for the U.S. digital asset market and clarify which parts of the industry would fall under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) versus the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). That distinction matters for investors and operators because it can influence compliance expectations, enforcement risk, and the way crypto products are structured.

With the procedural step now blocked, the bill appears to have little time left to advance this year. The legislative clock is running down, with fewer than 36 legislative days remaining before the new Congress is sworn in after the November midterm elections.

How markets reacted: equities sell, Bitcoin wobbles then steadies

Crypto-linked equities moved in tandem, reflecting how sensitive parts of the market have become to expectations around U.S. regulation. In addition to Coinbase and Circle, Bitcoin treasury companies and miners were sold off across the board, as Yahoo Finance’s reported intraday performance suggests.

Bitcoin itself briefly slipped below $75,000 after the Senate vote, before rebounding to around $76,000 at the time of writing, per CoinGecko data: CoinGecko Bitcoin price chart. That pattern—early pressure followed by partial recovery—aligns with traders treating the regulatory headline as a catalyst while watching for the next clarity point rather than assuming a single vote permanently changes the long-term trajectory.

Even so, the broad equity declines imply investors were not just reacting to Bitcoin’s momentary movement, but also reassessing the probability of progress toward a clearer regulatory regime in the near term.

Armstrong’s push for CLARITY and the “either way” framing

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has been among the most prominent advocates for the CLARITY Act. Earlier coverage referenced in the report notes that Armstrong emphasized the bill’s bipartisan momentum ahead of key Senate activity. In May, he suggested the legislation was in its strongest and most bipartisan position to date.

As the vote approached, Armstrong’s public messaging also sharpened. In August, he predicted a forked outcome: either the Senate would secure “60+ votes” on September 15, or, if the bill did not advance, regulators would issue new rules from the CFTC and SEC around September 16. His view was that some form of “clarity” would follow regardless of the Senate result, writing on X: Brian Armstrong.

In the hours leading up to Tuesday’s vote, Armstrong again urged senators to back the legislation, positioning the decision as a competition between U.S. leadership in crypto innovation and falling behind other countries. He wrote that “History — and the crypto voter — won’t forget” on X: Brian Armstrong. After the procedural failure, that expectation of near-term legislative momentum clearly did not materialize.

Saylor and the pivot toward “Bitcoin clarity”

Following the failed vote, Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor offered a different take on what “clarity” should mean for markets. On X, Saylor wrote: “The only clarity you need is Bitcoin.” Michael Saylor.

While that comment is not a policy position with legal substance, it illustrates a common tension in crypto markets during periods of regulatory uncertainty: some investors want clearer rules for product categories and oversight, while others prioritize clarity around Bitcoin’s role and long-term adoption regardless of how quickly legislative negotiations conclude.

Importantly for readers tracking the sector, Saylor’s framing does not replace the need for regulatory clarity in the U.S. It does, however, help explain why portions of the market can absorb delays without immediately abandoning crypto exposure—especially when they view Bitcoin as the core reference point for value and adoption.

Going forward, the key variable to watch is whether congressional negotiations over the CLARITY framework resume in a way that can still fit within the remaining legislative window—or whether momentum shifts to the next Congress after the midterms. Tuesday’s vote suggests markets are pricing not just the existence of a bill, but the probability that it advances soon enough to matter before timelines tighten again.

Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx said it will cease operations, citing the “increasingly difficult” conditions of running a crypto exchange.

CoinEx users have until Dec. 22 to withdraw their funds, when the exchange will formally close, nine years to the day after it went live, founder and CEO Haipo Yang wrote on X Tuesday.

“CoinEx did not become one of the industry’s leading exchanges and the security and compliance risks of running a crypto exchange have become increasingly difficult to contain,” Yang said.

He added that he did consider selling CoinEx, but did not feel that would be “the right way to end this journey. A clean ending is the right ending.”

ConEx’s 24-hour trading volume sits at just over $70 million, according to CoinGecko, some way short of leading Asia-based exchanges like CoinW ($1.18 billion) and Gate ($1.6 billion).

The closure reflects a trend of well-established exchanges struggling to maintain their place in the market as the industry matures and consolidates. Bitmart and BitMEX, which had been around since 2017 and 2014, respectively, both announced their closures in July, with indications that they were casualties of a decline in spot trading volume by retail users.

An attacker exploited a Gnosis Safe wallet on Ethereum, removing about 2,900 rsETH, worth roughly $7.8 million, on Tuesday.

An automated bot known as “yoink” front-ran the attack transaction and extracted the tokens, security firms BlockSec, Blockaid and SlowMist said.

The victim’s wallet was set up to let a helper contract move money for it, an ordinary arrangement for people who automate their trading. The helper was meant to verify that the caller had permission, but SlowMist and BlockSec found the check approved anyone who named the helper itself as the target.

The attacker then dumped around 2,900 rsETH into a trading pool built minutes earlier around a worthless token called Permissionless Attacker Token, leaving the wallet with a receipt worth nothing. Yoink’s bot paid roughly $47,000 to jump the queue and took the tokens, sending 2,882 rsETH to a separate address.

The world’s largest stablecoin by market cap, Tether’s USDt, was reportedly used in a failed Venezuelan oil trade that cost Poland’s largest energy giant $230 million in late 2023, according to the Financial Times.

That was after the Caracas-based state oil company, PDVSA, began demanding partial payments in USDT as a workaround to US financial sanctions.

The $230 million was an advance payment paid largely in Tether USDt (USDT) in an oil trade orchestrated by Samer Awad, a former executive at Orlen Trading Switzerland (OTS), a trading subsidiary of Poland’s state-controlled energy giant, Orlen, to acquire 6 million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil in November 2023 from state-owned PDVSA, the news outlet reported on Tuesday. 

Orlen sent the $230 million advance payment to Hannon International Middle East, the Dubai-based seller, on Dec. 4, 2023. Hannon approached various crypto brokers and intermediaries to obtain the USDT necessary to buy the crude oil, but most funds disappeared into a maze of crypto transfers, while Orlen only received about $29 million worth of oil before eventually terminating the contract. 

Cointelegraph has approached Tether and Orlen for comment on the matter.

“Hannon became involved in the transaction at Orlen’s request” and was not responsible for the “transaction’s failure,” David McCoy, managing partner at ADG Legal Abu Dhabi, the legal representative of Hannon, told Cointelegraph.

“Hannon has since taken significant steps, at its own expense, to recover the funds paid in connection with the transaction and remains open to a constructive dialogue with Orlen about resolving this matter amicably.”

Payment flows that led to the $230 million loss. Source: Financial Times

Tracing missing $230 million through crypto intermediaries

After Orlen wired the $230 million in December 2023, Hannon reportedly obtained $80 million USDT, paying a $400,000 commission, from a Dubai-based financial services company he previously dealt with.

Hannon later sent Dubai-based Horizon Global $135 million, but claimed it only received $85 million in USDT, leaving a $50 million shortfall. Horizon has contested these claims.

Hannon also said it sent Dubai-incorporated Gold Mar International Trading $30 million, expecting a USDT conversion and onward payment for the oil to PDVSA. Hannon said it later recovered $21 million of the USDT from Gold Mar in February 2024.

In January 2024, Hannon employees reportedly gave a Caracas broker two USB sticks, containing $60 million and $50 million USDT, respectively. The next month, it gave access to $11 million in USDT to another Caracas broker.

Related: Fragmented regulations limit stablecoin adoption in international finance: WTO head

On March 8, Orlen’s ship was finally loaded with about 500,000 barrels of fuel oil, worth only about $28.8 million. The same day, another $11 million in USDT was allegedly handed to the broker. Orlen Trading Services finally terminated the contract with Hannon on March 28, 2024, after only receiving a fraction of the crude oil.

In January 2025, the Warsaw Regional Prosecutor’s Office announced an investigation into the oil contracts related to Orlen Trading Services, for damages of 1.5 billion Polish zloty ($378 million). 

McCoy told Cointelegraph that Hannon “is not involved in the investigation in Poland and therefore cannot comment on it.”

In August 2026, three former managers at Orlen and Orlen Trading Services were reportedly indicted over crude oil contracts that caused $378 million in damages, according to Reuters. The managers, identified under Polish privacy laws by last initial, have all denied wrongdoing. The trio, Michal R., a former member of Orlen’s management board, Marcin O., a former member of OTS’ board, ​and Filip ​W, a ⁠former executive at Orlen and OTS, face up to 25 years in prison.

Magazine: Inside the ‘fake police raid’ that forced a $1M Bitcoin transfer

A rally that carried bitcoin to $79,427 on Monday unwound on Tuesday, leaving the largest cryptocurrency at $76,862, down 1.7% since midnight UTC and 6.6% below the month’s $82,284 high set on Sept. 4. Ether fell 1.6% to $2,474.76 and solana (SOL) lost 2% at $100.43.

Polymarket odds on the U.S. Clarity Act being signed into law this year followed a similar trajectory, reaching 34% on Monday before sliding back to 17%. The drop was caused by news that Democrats had crafted a counterproposal after rejecting a revised draft Republican negotiators circulated on Sunday. The sticking point is the ethics language governing officials’ crypto holdings rather than the market structure provisions themselves.

The Senate votes at 2:15 p.m. ET on whether to invoke cloture, or force a vote, on the bill. If the bill passes, that would move the industry closer to its first clear set of U.S. rules on who regulates what. A failure would likely shelve market structure legislation until after the midterm elections in November.

Selling pressure was near universal on Tuesday, with 92 of the CoinDesk 100 constituents lower on the day and the index itself down 1.6%.