Crypto Industry News:

Over the past few years, cryptocurrencies have attracted a lot of interest from institutional investors. Encryption has become quite popular due to more rules on the digital asset market. However, since most economies work with digital resources, there has also been pressure to strengthen regulations so that cryptocurrencies do not become a safe haven for money laundering and other illegal activities. Recent AML regulations and FAFT guidelines aimed to strengthen cryptography regulations.

However, as digital assets are gaining popularity in the world of finance, traditional financial institutions such as banks have now come under the eye of dealing with cryptocurrency users and stock exchanges regarding virtual assets. A recent Ciphertrace report looked at how virtual asset laws can affect banks. The report notes that 57% of these Virtual Asset Providers (VASPs) had weak or porous KYC processes. This is a greater threat because a weak KYC can lead to bad entities being able to launder virtual assets through stock exchanges operating as fiat off-ramps according to the report.

It is not clear, however, whether large banks are willing or willing to cope with exposure to crypto assets and at the same time ensure that there is no illegal activity in space. Although the number of cryptocurrencies has increased significantly over the years, mainstream banks still have reservations about users and cryptographic transactions. In the recent past, Bank of America raised concerns and kept customers from using debit cards to buy cryptocurrency. However, at the beginning of the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive or AMLD5 it was pointed out that banks cannot refuse to provide services to sectors and must analyze cryptocurrencies on a case-by-case basis.

According to data provided by Ciphertrace, almost 74% of Bitcoins transferred in "from exchange to exchange" transactions have been transferred cross-border and pose a significant risk of money laundering. Given this scenario, FATF noted that illegal users of virtual assets (VAs) may, for example, benefit from the global reach and transaction speed that VA provides, as well as from inadequate regulation or supervision of financial activities and VA suppliers in various jurisdictions, resulting in inconsistent legal and regulatory rules of the game in the VA ecosystem.

Technical Market Outlook:

The BTC/USD pair has made a new local low at the level of $8,795, which means the key short-term technical support located at the level of $8,858 had been violated. The bounce has been continued for some time now, but so far it was rather shallow and the price is starting to reverse again. If the intraday support located at the level of $8,971 is clearly violated, the odds for another low are high as the momentum is still weak and negative. The next target for bears is seen at the level of $8,565.

Weekly Pivot Points:

WR3 - $10,465

WR2 - $10,072

WR1 - $9,509

Weekly Pivot - $9,126

WS1 - $8,593

WS2 - $8,191

WS3 - 7,623

Trading Recommendations:

The larger time frame trend remains down and as long as the level of $10,791 is not violated, all rallies will be treated as a counter-trend corrective moves. This is why the short positions are now more preferred until the level of $10,791 is clearly violated. The key mid-term technical support is located at the level of $7,897.