Bitcoin is still nursing its bruises, and the punters betting real money don't see relief coming soon.
The world's largest cryptocurrency was trading around $75,700 on Wednesday, down roughly 3% over 24 hours and about 4% lower on the week.
That leaves it nearly 40% below the all-time high of about $126,200 struck last October.
The slide followed the US Senate's failure on Tuesday to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which would have set up a federal rulebook for digital assets.
The bill fell short on a 49-50 procedural vote, needing 60 to advance.
Ether and the rest of the pack fell harder, with XRP down more than 10% at one stage.
The reaction was brutal in the plumbing of the market, too.
Bitcoin exchange-traded funds bled about $450 million, the biggest outflow since June, while some $570 million of leveraged long positions were liquidated, according to CoinDesk.
For a sense of where this goes next, the prediction markets are worth a glance.
Betting platform Polymarket now puts the odds of the CLARITY Act becoming law before year-end at just 7%, down from 18% only a day earlier.
With midterm elections looming, lawmakers are unlikely to revisit the bill in a hurry.
The immediate worry now shifts back to macro forces: US interest rates, Federal Reserve policy and the direction of ETF flows, which have done more than anything to move Bitcoin this year.
