Bitcoin Gains as Clarity Act Hopes Rise Amid AI Stock Selloff

Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency market are outperforming traditional assets as market participants grow increasingly optimistic about legislative progress on the U.S. Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. Prediction market odds on Polymarket for the regulatory bill passing into law in 2026 jumped to roughly 30%, up from just 12% at the beginning of September, ahead of a crucial procedural vote in the U.S. Senate. The regulatory tailwind lifted Bitcoin over 1% in 24 hours to trade near $77,800, while Ethereum advanced around 2% to near $2,500. The crypto rally stands in stark contrast to broader technology and AI equity selloffs following calls from AI industry leaders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, to slow the pace of frontier AI development for safety reasons. This shift triggered demand concerns across semiconductor and data center infrastructure supply chains, dragging AI-adjacent crypto mining equities lower, including MARA Holdings falling 5% and CoreWeave dropping 6% in premarket trading.