Crypto Industry News:
Local media in the Bahamas reported that Sam Bankman-Fried had applied for bail. This came just two days after a court dismissed a previous SBF request, claiming that the founder of FTX posed a risk of absconding. The court then justified its decision.
According to the information, Sam Bankman-Fried, who is currently serving a prison sentence for his role in the collapse of FTX, has filed a second appeal with the Supreme Court of the Bahamas, seeking release. This follows an earlier bail attempt that was turned down.
On December 15, just over a month after the initial report was made, local media reported that the application would be considered on January 17.
Earlier on December 13, Bankman-Fried's attorneys had requested that he be released on $250,000 bail because he had no previous criminal record and suffered from melancholy and insomnia. Moreover, he had no previous convictions on his record.
The application for bail was denied as it was considered that there was a risk that the SBF would leave its jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, the government of the Bahamas has declared that it will promptly execute any extradition request to the United States. This is a very likely option under the circumstances.
In the United States, the case of the creator of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange is currently being investigated for eight different crimes. Some of them deal with money laundering, while others deal with banking and securities fraud.
Technical Market Outlook:
The BTC/USD pair had made a local low at the level of $16,268 in form of a Hammer candlestick pattern on H4 time frame chart. The market had broken below 100 MA on the H4 time frame chart and is trading below the intraday technical resistance seen at $16,880. The volatility is still limited despite the recent spike down, so the rage is seen between the levels of $16,268 - $16,720. Any breakout below the range low would extend the corrective cycle towards the level of $15,984 ( November 28th low). The weak and negative momentum supports the short-term bearish outlook on the H4 time frame chart.
Weekly Pivot Points:
WR3 - $17,039
WR2 - $16,862
WR1 - $16,778
Weekly Pivot - $16,685
WS1 - $16,601
WS2 - $16,509
WS3 - $16,332
Trading Outlook:
The down trend on the H4, Daily and Weekly time frames continues without any indication of a possible 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 new yearly low was made at $15,555 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 in the longer term.
