Crypto Industry News:

The United States Treasury Department has added many cryptocurrency addresses to its list of Specially Marked Citizens (SDNs) in accordance with the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. These addresses and their associated persons were considered to be associated with foreign drug operators.

The Ministry of the Treasury updated its SDN list on August 21. The three alleged drug traffickers associated with crypto addresses are Chinese citizens Xiaobing Yan, Fujing Zheng and Guanghua Zheng. All three people have Bitcoin-related addresses listed on the SDN list, and Guanghua Zheng has an additional Litecoin address.

As explained in the White House press release, the bill outlined above aims to ban trade and transactions between drug dealers and US entities - namely companies and individuals. Under the Act, government departments coordinate the investigation into foreign drug dealers. They are then mentioned on the list, which is presented to the president. This then determines whether it is appropriate to impose sanctions by the US.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin believes Bitcoin is susceptible to money laundering. Mnuchin said he intends to closely monitor Bitcoin and believes that billions of dollars in cryptocurrencies are being used for illegal purposes.

Technical Market Overview:

The BTC/USD pair has bounced from the lower channel boundary around the level of $9,700, but is still trading inside of the narrow range and below the technical resistance at the level of $10,166. The nearest technical support is seen at the levels of $9,704 and $9,676. Still, the larger timeframe trend remains up, but to regain control over the market, the bulls have to break through the 50% Fibonacci retracement located at the level of $10,840.

Weekly Pivot Points:

WR3 - $13,461

WR2 - $12,432

WR1 - $11,161

Weekly Pivot - $10,133

WS1 - $9,200

WS2 - $8,268

WS3 - $7,027

Trading Recommendations:

The best strategy in the current market conditions is to trade with the larger timeframe trend, which is still up. All the shorter timeframe moves are being treated as a correction inside of the uptrend. The larger degree WXY correction might have been completed and the market might be ready for another impulsive wave up of a higher degree. Any violation of the level of $9,049 invalidates the bullish impulsive scenario.