Crypto Industry News:
The demand for cryptocurrencies in Nigeria continues to grow. The reason for this state of affairs is the weakening currency and rapidly rising inflation in Africa's largest economy.
According to the latest report by New York-based research company Chainalysis, the volume of cryptocurrency transactions in Nigeria increased by 9%. year-on-year to USD 56.7 billion in the period from July 2022 to June 2023.
For comparison, in Uganda the use of cryptocurrencies is lower, but it is growing rapidly (in the same period there was an increase of 245% to USD 1.6 billion). In turn, the use of cryptocurrencies in Kenya fell by more than half, to $8.4 billion.
In Nigeria, interest in bitcoin and stablecoins surged as the value of the Naira fell, particularly during the most extreme declines in June and July 2023. The currency weakened to record lows after President Bola Tinubu began implementing one of the most important reforms Nigeria has seen since years. The idea is to abolish the popular, but extremely expensive for the Nigerian government, gasoline subsidy and remove some exchange rate restrictions.
Recall that Nigeria has banned its banks and financial institutions from trading or facilitating transactions in cryptocurrencies in 2021. A year later, the country's financial watchdog published a set of rules on digital assets, signaling that Africa's most populous country was trying to find a compromise between an outright ban on crypto assets and their unregulated use.
Technical Market Outlook:
The ETH/USD pair has broken below the short-term trend line support around the level of $1,630 and made a new local low at the level of $1,618 (at the time of writing the analysis). The momentum broken to the negative territory as well, so the bears are in temporary control of the market. The intraday technical resistance is seen at the level of $1,668 and the nearest technical support levels are located at $1,606.
Weekly Pivot Points:
WR3 - $1,683
WR2 - $1,653
WR1 - $1,641
Weekly Pivot - $1,622
WS1 - $1,610
WS2 - $1,591
WS3 - $1,560
Trading Outlook:
The Ethereum market has been seen making lower highs and lower low since the swing high was made in the middle of the August 2022 at the level of $2,029. This is the key level for bulls, so it needs to be broken in order to continue the up trend. The key technical support is seen at $1,368, so as long as the market trades above this level, the outlook remains bullish.