Crypto traders holding long, or bullish, futures bets have taken a sharp hit over the past 24 hours after the Clarity Act failed a Senate procedural vote.
Exchanges liquidated about $571 million in long positions in that window, the highest tally since Aug. 22, according to CoinGlass. Shorts, or bearish bets, accounted for only about $100 million of the wipeout.
Bitcoin and ether longs absorbed the heaviest damage, with roughly $190 million liquidated in each. Analysts had flagged ether and DeFi tokens as the assets most likely to outperform bitcoin if the Senate voted yes. XRP longs lost about $30 million, while Solana longs lost about $22 million.
The data shows markets were positioned for continued upside, largely on hopes the Clarity Act would advance. Those hopes strengthened earlier this week after reports that President Donald Trump was willing to make concessions on the bill’s ethics provisions. The market responded: bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, rose to nearly $80,000 from about $77,000 on Monday.
The rally began to unwind about 24 hours ago as reports circulated that Democrats were still holding the line. Those reports proved accurate. The bill failed to clear the Senate’s 60-vote procedural hurdle. The effort is not entirely over. The CFTC and SEC can still move ahead with their own rule making. In other words, the regulatory momentum has shifted entirely to the executive branch and independent agencies following the U.S. Senate’s 49–50 procedural vote blocking the CLARITY Act.
Liquidations occur when the market moves against a trader’s futures position and mark-to-market losses mount. If the collateral posted to back the trade is no longer enough to protect it, the trader must add funds or the exchange force-closes the position.
Forced liquidations can amplify volatility, though the damage so far looks contained. As of this writing, bitcoin was changing hands around $75,700, still inside its recent range, CoinDesk data show.