Bitcoin Sinks as the Senate's Clarity Act Showdown Looms

In brief

• Bitcoin fell 2.39% to $76,314, its lowest close since September's golden cross.
• The Senate holds a cloture vote on the Clarity Act at 2:15 p.m. ET, needing 60 votes it may not have—traders are getting more skeptical by the day.
• Technical indicators say this is a real trend, not just profit-taking, and a bounce could still be close.

Bitcoin picked a bad day to test lower levels. Then again, so did everything else.

Stock futures slipped Tuesday morning as Wall Street braced for tomorrow's Federal Reserve decision on interest rates, and traders are pricing in the least fun outcome on the table: a hike, not a cut. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both opened lower, the 10-year Treasury yield is flirting with its highest levels since 2023, and oil is spiking on Middle East supply fears.

Even tech stocks got spooked by a fresh round of AI-safety calls from industry leaders.

Risk-off is the theme of the day, and crypto doesn't get to sit this one out. Layer on a genuinely uncertain Clarity Act vote landing at around 2 p.m. ET, and the picture gets messier fast.

The golden cross, erased

Bitcoin opened Tuesday's session at $78,185, poked a high of $78,242, then folded to an intraday low of $76,076. Right now it is trading close to $76,314. That's down $1,871, or 2.39% on the day