Crypto Industry News:

At a time when many global jurisdictions, such as the Bahamas and Sweden, are already testing their digital central bank (CBDC) currencies, the French central bank is becoming more direct regarding its own CBDC plans.

The Bank of France is now officially starting a program of experiments to test the integration of CBDC for interbank settlements, inviting potential participants to submit applications.

According to a published document, the French central bank calls for applications to experiment using the digital Euro to explore the potential of CBDC in the settlement and settlement of tokenized financial assets. Although previously the Bank of France called for the introduction of Blockchain-based billing systems in Europe, it stated that it did not impose any specific technology as part of the newly announced CBDC experiment program.

Therefore, the French Central Bank will select a maximum of 10 CBDC-related applications by group or by person, focusing on "innovative nature" as the main selection criterion. According to the detailed document requesting applications, applicants must be established in the European Union or a country that is a party to the agreement on the European Economic Area. Applicants may submit applications by May 15, 2020, and their selection will take place on July 10, the bank said.

The bank's experiment with CBDC has three goals, such as modeling of CBDC-based interbank settlements as well as identification of benefits and analysis of potential risks. Among the three potential use cases, the Bank of France lists payments on financial instruments, payments using the digital currency of other central banks, and payments on digital assets.

The bank emphasized that it will not be involved in creating money as part of its CBDC experiment. In addition, the central bank noted that it would destroy the token reflecting the amount in Euro in digital form at the end of the accounting day on which the payment was made.

Technical Market Outlook:

The ETH/USD pair did not manage to break through the short-term trend line resistance located at the level of $132 again and the price was rejected from this level after Bearish Engulfing candlestick pattern was made. This level will now act as a resistance for the price, so it is worth to notice, that is located very close to the short-term trend line (marked in black). Ethereum is trying to bounce after the rejection, but to make this bounce more important, the bulls must break through the level of $134.65 and then through $142.77. In a case of a failure, the lower levels will be tested: $118.53 and $114.98. Please notice, there is almost non increase in momentum as the price moves up.

Weekly Pivot Points:

WR3 - $161.35

WR2 - $151.83

WR1 - $136.71

Weekly Pivot - $127.64

WS1 - $112.54

WS2 - $102.86

WS3 - $88.46

Trading Recommendations:

The fear of the coronavirus consequences is very strong among the global investors and it rules on the financial markets. So far the global investors are not so keen to invest in cryptocurrency, because they are being perceived as risky assets. The larger time frame trend on Ethereum remains down and as long as the level of $214.67 is not violated, all rallies will be treated as a counter-trend corrective moves. This is why the short positions are now more preferred.