FX.co ★ Technical Analysis of BTC/USD for February 20, 2023

Crypto Industry News:

Malwarebytes has drawn attention to two new computer malware distributed by unknown sources that are actively targeting cryptocurrency investors in the desktop environment. As of December 2022, the two malicious files in question - the MortalKombat ransomware and the Laplas Clipper malware - have been actively scouring the Internet and stealing cryptocurrencies from unwary investors, as revealed by threat research team Cisco Talos. Campaign casualties are mostly in the US, with smaller percentages of victims in the UK, Turkey and the Philippines.

The malware works together to hijack the information stored in the user's clipboard, which is usually a string of letters and numbers copied by the user. The infection then detects the wallet addresses copied to the clipboard and replaces them with another address. The attack takes advantage of users' insufficient caution about the sender's wallet address that could send cryptocurrencies to the attacker. Without a clear target, the attack includes individuals as well as small and large organizations.

Once infected with MortalKombat ransomware, it encrypts user files and displays a ransom note with payment instructions. As explained by Malwarebytes, the "tag-team campaign" begins with a cryptocurrency-themed email containing a malicious attachment. The attachment launches a BAT file that helps download and run the ransomware when opened.

On the other hand, as ransomware victims continue to reject extortion requests, attackers' revenue from ransomware fell 40% in 2022 to $456.8 million.

Technical Market Outlook:

The BTC/USD pair had made a new local high at the level of $25,257 and reversed sharply lower. The pull-back did not last for long and the market is now consolidating the recent gains around the level of $24,500. A sustained breakout above the level of $25,000 on BTC/USD is still needed in order to extend the rally towards the key mid-term technical resistance seen at $25,442, so there is still a room to the upside for bulls. The strong and positive momentum on daily time frame chart supports the short-term bullish outlook for BTC, however, the market is coming off the extremely overbought conditions on H4 time frame chart.

Weekly Pivot Points:

WR3 - $25,667

WR2 - $24,967

WR1 - $24,709

Weekly Pivot - $24,259

WS1 - $24,000

WS2 - $23,550

WS3 - $22,841

Trading Outlook:

Despite the recent rally, the down trend on the H4, Daily and Weekly time frames continues without any indication of a possible trend termination or reversal. So far every bounce and attempt to rally is being used to sell Bitcoin for a better price by the market participants, so the bearish pressure is still high. The gamechanging level for bulls is located at $25,442 and it must be clearly violated for a valid breakout in the longer term.