Crypto Industry News:

Investigators from France, Belgium and Israel have worked out a scam that has extorted EUR 6 million from French and Belgian citizens, read Europol's press release. The scammers promised a significant return on investment, which seems to be a Ponzi scheme.

An international network of cheaters was allegedly led by a Franco-Israeli citizen. In 2019, the authorities arrested nine suspects related to fraud. The investigation began in 2018 and was coordinated by Europol and Eurojust.

Criminals reportedly created a system that promised large returns on investment in Bitcoins, diamonds and gold, and offered their services on undisclosed online platforms.

The scam has significant Ponzi scheme characters. The organizers promised a return of 5 to 35 percent, then pretended to manage user portfolios and invited them to invest more money. Some victims have actually received interest to increase their confidence in the platform.

Organizations were also targeted - the victims of the fraud were, among others, a large French private company. The fraudsters managed to collect at least EUR 6 million, and unpaid invoices amounted to several million more. The authorities managed to recover over a million euros, while the rest were allegedly moved outside the European Union.

Technical Market Overview:

The BTC/USD pair has been trading in a narrow range established between the levels of $9,540 - $9,130 throughout the weekend. After the recent rally, the market is now consolidating the recent gains as the upward momentum is decreasing significantly. This behavior might indicate a counter-trend correction on the horizon and the termination of the five-wave impulsive pattern supports this view. In this case, the nearest technical supports for the bulls are seen at the levels of $9,130, $8,836 and $8,694.

Weekly Pivot Points:

WR3 - $10,823

WR2 - $10,138

WR1 - $9,838

Weekly Pivot - $9,130

WS1 - $8,807

WS2 - $8,069

WS3 - $7,777

Trading Recommendations:

The market might have made the first impulsive wave up of a higher degree. This strategy is valid as long as the level of $7,582 is not violated. Nevertheless, the larger timeframe trend is still down and all the shorter timeframe moves are still being treated as a counter-trend correction inside of the uptrend until the level of $10,278 is clearly broken.