Crypto Industry News:
The Bank of Russia continues its work on the upcoming implementation of the Central Bank's Digital Currency (CBDC), planning to officially introduce the digital ruble currency in a few years.
According to the latest update of the monetary policy of the Bank of Russia, in 2024 the authority will start connecting all banks and credit institutions to the digital ruble platform. This is an important year for Russia, as the country is expected to hold presidential elections in March 2024 and incumbent President Vladimir Putin has the constitutional right of re-election.
The central bank expects to complete the real money transaction testing as well as the client-to-business and firm-to-client settlement tests by then.
In 2023, the Bank of Russia also intends to beta-test ruble-based digital smart contracts for transactions by a limited number of participants.
The bank indicated that it expected a gradual implementation of CBDC, implementing new various tests and functions from year to year. As soon as the Treasury is ready, the digital ruble will also include consumer-to-government, business-to-government, as well as government-to-consumer and government-to-business payments, the Bank of Russia said.
Technical Market Outlook:
The BTC/USD pair had been capped several times around the level of $25k as the bulls clearly do not have enough momentum to make the sustained breakout possible. The intraday technical support is seen at $23,596 and might be hit any time now. The momentum is now weak and negative on the H4 time frame chart, so a deeper correction towards the level of $22,679 is possible as well. Please notice, the Bitcoin market keeps moving inside the ascending channel, so the bullish impulsive wave scenario to the upside is now invalidated. If there is no sustained breakout from the channel, the bears might accelerate the sell-off and test the swing low seen at the level of $17,600 again.
Weekly Pivot Points:
WR3 - $22,662
WR2 - $25,629
WR1 - $25,067
Weekly Pivot - $24,597
WS1 - $24,035
WS2 - $23,564
WS3 - $22,532
Trading Outlook:
The down trend on the H4, Daily and Weekly time frames continues without any indication of a trend termination or reversal. So far every bounce and attempt to rally is being used to sell Bitcoin for a better price by the market participants, so the bearish pressure is still high. The key long term technical support at the psychological level of $20,000 had been violated, the new swing low was made at $17,600 and if this level is violated, then the next long-term target for bulls is seen at $13,712. On the other hand, the gamechanging level for bulls is located at $25,367 and it must be clearly violated for a valid breakout.
