Crypto Industry News:

The Banque de France selected eight potential candidates to test the integration of CBDC into interbank settlements, according to an announcement published today.

The list of approved entrants includes large companies such as Accenture, HSBC, and Societe Generale, as well as smaller cryptocurrency focused players such as Seba Bank and LiquidShare.

The announcement follows a central bank's call for proposals to experiment with the digital euro it published in March. The institution announced then that it would select up to 10 applications related to CBDC, with "innovative nature" being one of the main selection criteria.

The French central bank will begin working with each of the eight players on their proposed experiments "in the coming months" to explore "new methods of exchanging financial instruments". In addition, pilot projects will try to establish how CBDCs can be distributed and used for cross-border payments.

It is worth noting that the Banque de France appears to be exploring wholesale rather than retail uses of the digital euro, which means that the CBDC has been designed according to "interbank regulation" and not for consumer purposes.

France has so far been at the forefront of European CBDC experiments. In May, it was the first country to successfully test the digital euro on Blockchain as part of an ongoing project with Societe Generale.

While it is unclear whether the French CBDC experiments will ever be adopted on an EU scale, a central bank was recently selected to represent the Eurosystem along with the Deutsche Bundesbank in the global BIS Innovation Hub of the Bank for International Settlements.

Technical Market Outlook:

The ETH/USD pair has been capped again at the short-term trend line resistance around the level of $240 and made a local low at the level of $233.68. Any violation of this trend line will open the road towards the next technical resistance seen at the level of $244.66. It is worth to notice, that this trend line has been tested twice already and all bullish attempts had failed. If the history repeats again, then the nearest technical support is seen at the level of $235.42 and $230.02. The neutral momentum indicator doe not support neither bulls nor bears for the moment.

Weekly Pivot Points:

WR3 - $258.07

WR2 - $250.97

WR1 - $242.31

Weekly Pivot - $235.59

WS1 - $227.18

WS2 - $291.82

WS3 - $211.48

Trading Recommendations:

The volatility on Ethereum is now lower than usual, so all the dynamic moves up and down might reverse quickly. The larger time frame trend on Ethereum remains down and as long as the level of $288 is not violated, all rallies will be treated as a counter-trend corrective moves. This is why the short positions are now more preferred. The next key technical support is seen at the level of $174.82.