The Senate blocked a bill to regulate cryptocurrency. Bitcoin has suffered its worst crash since June.

On September 15, the U.S. Senate blocked further consideration of the Clarity Act, dealing a serious blow to the crypto industry’s efforts to secure comprehensive regulations for the market, according to CNBC. This led to a drop in the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, as well as a decline in the stock prices of companies associated with the crypto industry.

Bitcoin lost 3.3%, falling to $75,800. At one point, it was down 5.3%, while Ethereum dropped more than 8.3%. For both of the largest cryptocurrencies, this is the sharpest drop since June, according to Bloomberg.

Shares of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase fell more than 10% during Tuesday’s trading session, while shares of the trading platform Robinhood Markets dropped nearly 4%, shares of Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, fell 11.4%, and shares of Strategy, the largest public holder of Bitcoin, fell 5.7%.

The Clarity Act was intended to establish a regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency market. It divided supervisory authority between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), established registration requirements for market participants, and regulated anti-money laundering measures.

The outcome of the vote was an unexpected setback for the crypto industry, whose representatives were confident that the bill would garner enough votes to move forward, according to CNBC. In the days leading up to the vote, shares of companies in the industry had been rising.

This news story is being updated.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor