Crypto Industry News:

The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Sinbad, a cryptocurrency mixer that it believes is a money laundering tool used by hacker organizations.

This is another in a series of blows that the American authorities have recently dealt to cryptocurrency mixers, explaining their intention to suppress hacking activities.

"Mixing services that enable criminal actors like Lazarus Group to launder stolen assets will have serious consequences," said Wally Adeyemo, deputy secretary of the Treasury. "The Treasury Department and its U.S. government partners are prepared to deploy all available tools to prevent mixers from currencies such as Sinbad, facilitating illicit activities. While we encourage responsible innovation in the digital asset ecosystem, we will not hesitate to take action against illicit actors," he added.

US authorities believe that hackers from the Lazarus Group are behind last year's hack of the game "Axie Infinity". Losses then amounted to over $600 million. There is also reasonable suspicion that the same group is responsible for last year's theft of $100 million from Horizon Bridge. Let us add that recently the blockchain analysis company Elliptic found that Sinbad was used to launder hacked funds, proceeds from the theft of $41 million from Stake.com and the theft of $70 million from CoinEx.

Technical Market Outlook:

The BTC/USD pair had made a new marginal swing high at the level of $38,504 and the price keeps hovering around this level ahead of weekend. Any violation of this level would extend the rally towards the next target seen at $40,000. The intraday technical support is seen at the level of $35,640 and the intraday technical resistance is located at $37,770 and $38,028. The strong and positive momentum on the H4 time frame chart support the short-term bullish outlook for BTC, but for now the market keeps consolidating in a narrow horizontal zone. Breakout is widely expected.

Weekly Pivot Points:

WR3 - $45,191

WR2 - $40,087

WR1 - $39,050

Weekly Pivot - $36,555

WS1 - $34,731

WS2 - $32,234

WS3 - $27,915

Trading Outlook:

The bulls have successfully breached the pivotal level of $25,442, marking a significant shift in the mid-term outlook for BTC towards a bullish trajectory. The next objective for the bulls is set at $40,000. The potential for a sustained long-term uptrend remains, provided the critical level of $19,572 is not decisively violated.