Bitcoin ETF Demand Weakens With $450M Outflow After Clarity Act Vote

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $450 million in net outflows Tuesday, their largest daily redemption since June 25, as the Senate’s failure to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act sent several regulation-sensitive cryptocurrencies sharply lower.

Data from SoSoValue showed the $450 million withdrawal followed a Senate procedural vote that came roughly 10 votes short of the 60 required to move the bill forward. Seven Democrats who had spent months negotiating the legislation were among those who voted against the motion.

Bitcoin initially declined after the vote but subsequently stabilized. BTC was trading near $75,575.59 and was little changed from midnight UTC, leaving the cryptocurrency down 1.7% over 24 hours.

The CoinDesk 20 Index showed a similar pattern. The index was down less than 0.1% since midnight UTC after falling 4.6% Tuesday, its biggest one-day decline since June 5.

Investors are now turning their attention to the Federal Reserve, which is scheduled to announce its latest interest-rate decision later Wednesday. A rate increase had been the prevailing market expectation heading into the meeting.

The Clarity Act’s failure also sharply reduces the possibility of comprehensive crypto market-structure legislation passing the Senate this year. Congress is expected to operate under split control in January, leaving the bill’s future uncertain.

Regulatory-Linked Tokens See Larger Declines

Bitcoin’s 1.7% decline was relatively restrained compared with the losses recorded by tokens more exposed to U.S. regulatory decisions.

XLM fell 9.6% over 24 hours, while XRP dropped 8.1%. Of the assets included in the CoinDesk 100, 95 posted losses during the same period.

The move was much less pronounced in traditional markets. Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.33%, gold gained 0.88% and silver advanced 1.37%. The Dollar Index remained unchanged.

Futures Liquidations Top $570M

The crypto decline prompted another round of forced deleveraging. More than $570 million worth of leveraged futures positions were liquidated during the previous 24 hours, the largest total since Aug. 22.

The amount was still considerably below the liquidation waves recorded during early February and early June.

The taker long-short volume ratio also moved into bearish territory. Short trades represented 51.5% of taker volume over the 24-hour period. Takers are traders who execute immediately against orders available in the order book, consuming liquidity rather than waiting for passive orders to fill.

Hyperliquid’s trader long-short ratio slipped to 2.53 from 2.71. The 2.71 reading had been the highest since early October 2025, when bitcoin was trading above $120,000.

Despite the decline, the ratio continues to show more than two longs for every short, leaving significant bullish leverage in the market and creating potential liquidation pressure if prices continue to weaken.

Bitcoin Futures Indicate Rising Short Activity

Bitcoin futures open interest increased while the cryptocurrency fell. BTC declined 1.4% over 24 hours, while open interest rose from 676,000 BTC to 688,000 BTC.

The combination is generally interpreted as traders adding short exposure during the decline. Bitcoin’s 24-hour OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta was negative, indicating that shorts were being executed more actively at current market prices instead of through passive limit orders.

Funding rates for perpetual contracts nevertheless indicate that some traders remain positioned for an eventual recovery.

XRP futures produced a comparable signal. XRP fell nearly 10% as open interest increased slightly, although the overall open-interest figure remains well below its record level.

Defensive Positioning Appears in Options

Derivatives data for several major altcoins also remained weak. XRP, ETH, TRX, DOGE, XLM and SHIB all posted negative 24-hour CVD readings, pointing to aggressive selling in their derivatives markets.

Funding rates were bearish for ETH, XLM, TRX, SOL, BCH, ADA and LINK.

Implied volatility has remained relatively subdued. Bitcoin’s BVIV and ether’s EVIV 30-day implied-volatility indexes continue to trade within recent ranges and well below their year-to-date highs, suggesting traders are not pricing a major volatility surge around the Fed announcement.

Options skew has become more defensive, however. Bitcoin’s one-week and one-month skews are positive and rising at approximately 5.76% and 6.33%, respectively, reflecting stronger demand for puts and downside hedges. Ether’s options market is showing a similar trend.

Trading volume tells a mixed story. Bitcoin’s most-active options were predominantly calls, with the $79,000 strike recording the highest activity. In ether, the five most-traded options over the same period were all puts.

ARB, SYN and Privacy Tokens Outperform

Arbitrum (ARB) gained 16% over 24 hours following Standard Chartered’s forecast that the token could reach $10 by the end of 2030, roughly 70 times its current price.

The bank cited revenue associated with Robinhood Chain and the expansion of tokenized assets. Its target for ARB at the end of this year is $0.50.

Synapse (SYN) also more than doubled to $0.1787 despite no obvious catalyst.

Its market data points toward a possible short squeeze. Futures volume reached $310.64 million over 24 hours, compared with a market capitalization of only $41.18 million. Open interest equaled roughly 60% of the token’s market value, while Binance’s long-short account ratio was 0.93.

Privacy-focused cryptocurrencies continued to outperform the broader market. Zcash (ZEC) climbed 6.9% to $1,186.75, while Dash (DASH) rose 2.9%.

Lighter (LIT) added 6% to $4.27, and Raydium (RAY) gained 5.4% to $1.30. Both tokens recovered some of Tuesday’s losses but had not returned to their levels from the beginning of the week.

Several DeFi tokens remained under pressure, with AAVE, JUP and ETHFI each falling more than 2% after midnight UTC.

The declines followed comments from ether.fi founder Mike Silagadze ahead of the Clarity Act vote. He told CoinDesk that the U.S. currently represents a relatively small part of ether.fi’s market, limiting the expected effect of the legislation on the project.