Why XRP Was Hit Hardest After the CLARITY Act Senate Failure

XRP fell about 8% over the past 24 hours, one of the worst showings among the top cryptocurrencies, after the US Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act on Tuesday.

The drop left XRP down well over 10% for the week, well behind Bitcoin and most other major coins, and it shows how closely tied the token’s price still is to progress on crypto legislation in Washington.

The Selling Was Not Just Profit-Taking

XRP’s price ran from around $1.46 per CoinGecko data to near $1.27, with analyst Xaif Crypto noting that its cumulative volume delta (CVD) cratered to negative 10.5 million as the price dumped.

“Sellers aren’t hiding anymore, this is aggressive dumping not just profit taking,” they wrote on X.

The selloff tracked the Senate vote almost exactly. Cloture on the bill, formally known as H.R. 3633, needed 60 votes and got 49. Every yes vote came from Republicans, and four of their own broke ranks to vote no.

Furthermore, Senators Gillibrand, Warner, Booker, Warnock, Gallego, Alsobrooks, and Cortez Masto all voted no after months of talks, meaning no Democrats crossed over to support it.

The CLARITY Act is meant to divide oversight of digital assets between the SEC and CFTC and bring exchanges, brokers, and dealers under a new federal registration regime, provisions the market had been pricing ahead of the Tuesday vote.

At the time of writing, CoinGecko data put XRP around $1.28, down over 8% in 24 hours and more than 10% in seven days. The picture looks different further out, with the Ripple token still up close to 29% over the past 30 days, even after this week’s drop, although it remains down more than 56% across one year and about 65% below its all-time high of $3.65 from July 2025.

Bitcoin and the Rest of the Market Also Slipped

The broader market was also under pressure, with Bitcoin slipping around 2.0% over the same 24 hours to trade near $75,000, while its share of the total crypto market remained above 56%. On its part, Ethereum dropped close to 4%, which saw it trading a few bucks under $2,400.

Stellar dipped even harder than XRP, shaving nearly 9% from its value, while BNB was only slightly ruffled, with its price dropping less than 1%.

Zcash gained about 3%, and Hyperliquid fell more than 2% over the same period, while Dogecoin slipped 3.7% and Solana lost over 4%, in line with the rest of the market’s retreat.

For XRP, the immediate price damage does not change its legal position, as pointed out by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who also stated that his company “has never been stronger” despite the CLARITY setback.