Bitcoin Slides Further on Oil, Yields, and the Clarity Act

Higher oil prices and rising U.S. rates are pressuring sentiment, while the odds of the Clarity Act passing have slipped further. Ethereum, Solana, and XRP also moved lower.

Key Takeaways

• Bitcoin dropped to around $65,500 on Thursday as oil prices and U.S. Treasury yields moved higher.
• The wider crypto market, including Ethereum, Solana, and XRP, also traded in the red.
• The odds of the Clarity Act passing fell to 38% after Democratic senators pushed back on the latest draft.

Bitcoin remained under pressure on Thursday as oil and U.S. Treasury yields kept rising and the chances of the Clarity Act becoming law fell sharply. The price was around $65,500 (€57,400), down about 0.7% since midnight UTC, after briefly recovering to nearly $66,700 (€58,500) on Wednesday. The weakness also spread across the broader crypto market, with Ethereum, Solana, and XRP all trading lower.

Oil and Yields Weigh on Sentiment

West Texas Intermediate futures climbed to $88.60 (€78) per barrel, their highest level since June 11. That is reviving inflation concerns, since higher energy costs can feed into consumer prices in the U.S. and abroad. For central banks, that makes rate cuts harder to justify.

The bond market moved in the same direction. The U.S. two-year yield rose to 4.31%, the highest since February 2025, while the 10-year yield increased to 4.66%, its highest level since May. Higher yields make non-yielding assets like Bitcoin and gold less attractive, which can push more money into fixed-income investments.

Clarity Act Loses Support

Regulation is adding another layer of pressure. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a bipartisan bill introduced in May 2025, is designed to spell out how the SEC and the CFTC would divide oversight of digital assets. It also sorts crypto into categories such as digital commodities, investment contract assets, and payment stablecoins, while laying out rules for custody, asset segregation, and bans on mixing customer funds.

That is where the latest pushback came in. A group of leading Democratic senators said the newest version does not go far enough on ethics and other key provisions. On Polymarket, the implied odds of passage fell from 46% to 38%.

Why This Matters in Europe

For European crypto investors, this matters because U.S. regulation often has a knock-on effect across the market, especially for major assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP. At the same time, the combination of higher oil prices and rising rates is a reminder of how fast macro shocks can hit risk appetite in crypto. So this is not just a U.S. policy story, but also a read on global crypto sentiment. The mix of more expensive energy and higher rates also played a role earlier in Bitcoin's move, when inflation worries and profit-taking weighed on the market.