Preparing for a Post-CLARITY Crash? Whale Opens Massive BTC, ETH, and ZEC Shorts

The landmark crypto legislation, the CLARITY Act, will face a crucial vote in the US Senate later today (September 15) and could trigger significant volatility across the digital asset sector.

The vote itself doesn’t mean that the bill will be enacted, but it could pave the way for formal discussion. However, Democrats don’t seem thrilled by the proposed framework and keep insisting on additional changes, significantly reducing the CLARITY Act’s chances of being signed into law before the end of the year. That said, some crypto traders have started preparing for the possible impact.

Brace for a Collapse?

X user Max Crypto revealed that an anonymous whale has opened a $47 million short position on Bitcoin (BTC), a $22 million short on Ethereum (ETH), and a $4 million short on Zcash (ZEC) ahead of the vote.

What’s interesting is that the market participant has made almost 2,300 trades so far and has a 100% win rate. Of course, such a successful streak has caused Max Crypto to wonder whether the whale is an “insider,” with many others sharing the same theory.

Numerous analysts expect the legislation to be rejected today and project a serious downfall for BTC in response. X user Midas thinks the primary cryptocurrency would “dump brutally” on such news, break below $70,000, and move toward new lows.

“Once $70K breaks, most of the remaining liquidity sits below $60K. That’s where the real fear should finally hit the market. And that’s exactly what we still need to form the 2026 macro bottom. I still expect one final capitulation before this cycle is over,” they added.

Before that, Midas argued that BTC trades inside a descending structure seen before and warned of an ultimate flashout to $50,000 “soon.” The analyst views $55K as the area where the bear market finally ends, and until then, “every aggressive bounce still looks like another trap.”

A Pump Instead?

Contrary to the prevailing pessimism, the analytics platform Lookonchain revealed another unknown market participant who moved in the opposite direction.

The whale closed their $58.4 million short position on BTC for a $266,000 profit, then flipped to a 40x long on 900 BTC. The major player has opened 914 trades so far and has a win rate of around 51.72%.