Major cryptocurrencies faced a broad decline during the Asian trading session on September 16, with Ripple's XRP falling nearly 10% to $1.30 and leading the downturn among top digital assets.

The selloff came after the U.S. Senate voted 49-50 against a procedural motion for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a measure that required 60 votes to advance to legislative debate. Several Republican senators cast opposing votes on the motion.

Other major tokens also moved lower in tandem. Ethereum dropped nearly 5% to approximately $2,410, Solana declined 5% to just above $97, and Dogecoin fell close to 5%. Both Zcash and Hyperliquid's HYPE slid roughly 4%, while Bitcoin retreated nearly 3% to above $76,000. BNB and Tron's TRX posted the smallest losses among major coins, each down about 1%.

Negotiators had previously assembled a compromise text exceeding 600 pages, but the key sticking point that broke the deal involved the wording of ethics provisions designed to prevent senior government officials from retaining crypto business interests. Michigan Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin stated she voted against the bill because its ethics language was "too thin," pointing to President Trump, his children, and cabinet members profiting from the crypto sector. She also criticized the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for lacking the staffing necessary to enforce the law, and noted gaps in the bill regarding anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing measures.

Crypto-related equities suffered steeper losses than the tokens themselves. Coinbase fell nearly 9% to $174.42, Circle dropped more than 9% to $88.26, Galaxy Digital declined 8%, and Gemini lost 7%. Bullish and Riot Platforms both retreated 5%, while eToro slid 4%. Robinhood, MARA Holdings, CleanSpark, IREN, and Core Scientific recorded losses ranging between 3% and 4%.

Market attention has now shifted to the regulatory bodies the legislation was intended to govern. The Securities and Exchange Commission is already advancing its proposed crypto regulatory framework and tokenized securities rules, which has become the industry's only route to obtaining clarity and certainty from Washington.

Industry political action committees, including Fairshake, must decide before the November 3 election how to treat senators who voted against the bill, with the new Congress set to take office in January 2027. The Federal Reserve is scheduled to announce its interest rate decision later on September 16, with traders leaning toward expectations of a 25-basis-point hike, even as markets digest the legislative setback and continue offloading risk assets.