Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister Sar Sokha has announced that 48,000 foreign nationals have been deported since the launch of a widespread scam center crackdown in 2023. However, he’s cautioned that despite this apparent success, the country’s police force is stretched worryingly thin.

Sokha reportedly shared the statistic as part of a “Safer Internet Day” campaign, launched last Tuesday.

However, he also warned that the nation’s police force is “stretched thin” with roughly one officer for every 3,100 citizens. In an effort to mitigate the shortfall, he outlined plans for a new initiative that would pay residents for any tips that lead authorities to scam center compounds. 

He said, “We cannot do this alone. We need local residents to be our ‘eyes and ears’ to help sweep these operations out of our country.” 

Sokha also said the government will introduce exit restrictions at airports to stop victims from being trafficked.

Women between the ages of 18 and 35 without clear documentation, verified sponsors, and little in the way of funds will be checked, as well as tourist travellers with very little money. 

XRP price breaks local bearish market structure, shifting momentum, with price now testing a key volume support zone that could establish a higher low for higher prices.

XRP (XRP) Price action has begun to show early signs of recovery after breaking its local bearish market structure. Following a period of sustained downside pressure, the market has transitioned back into a technically significant support region where buyers are attempting to regain control. This development suggests that the corrective phase may be nearing completion, provided key support levels continue to hold.

Markets often transition through phases of imbalance before stabilizing around high-liquidity zones. The current move back into a major volume support cluster highlights a potential shift away from bearish continuation toward rotational price behavior. Whether this develops into sustained upside momentum will depend heavily on how price reacts within this support region.

XRP price key technical points

• Local bearish market structure has been broken, signaling momentum shift
• Major volume support cluster is being tested, including POC and Fibonacci confluence
• $1.76 high-timeframe resistance becomes the upside target, if higher low confirms

XRP price has rotated back into an important technical region defined by strong volume participation. This zone includes the point of control (POC), the value area high, and the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement, creating a powerful confluence of support levels.

When multiple technical indicators align in one region, it often increases the probability of price stabilization. Such areas typically attract liquidity and institutional interest, making them ideal locations for higher lows to form during trend transitions.

The return to this volume area indicates that sellers are losing immediate dominance, while buyers are beginning to defend price more aggressively.

Establishing a higher low is critical

The most important technical requirement moving forward is the confirmation of a higher low. A higher low represents a shift in market structure from bearish to constructive and often marks the early stages of trend continuation to the upside.

For this scenario to remain valid, the value area low must continue acting as support. Acceptance below this level would weaken the bullish thesis and reopen downside risks. However, sustained holding above value strengthens the probability that accumulation is taking place.

Once a higher low is confirmed, XRP gains structural support for continuation within the newly developing trend.

Market structure transition underway

The recent break of local bearish structure is a meaningful technical event. Previously, price action was characterized by lower highs and continued weakness. That pattern has now been disrupted, indicating a transition from distribution toward potential accumulation.

Market structure shifts rarely occur instantly. Instead, they typically unfold through rotations between support and resistance levels. The current consolidation within the volume support region may represent the early phase of this transition.

As buyers defend support and absorb supply, momentum can gradually build for a larger expansion move.

Resistance at $1.76 comes into focus

If the higher low successfully forms, attention shifts toward high-timeframe resistance near $1.76. This level represents the next major technical objective and aligns with prior rejection zones within the broader trading range.

A rotational move toward resistance would confirm that the market has transitioned out of its corrective phase and into a recovery structure. However, reaching this target will require strong bullish participation.

Bullish volume is the deciding factor

While structural signals are improving, confirmation ultimately depends on bullish volume expansion. Breakouts or rotations without volume often fail, leading to renewed consolidation or reversals.

Increasing buy-side volume would validate demand returning to the market and strengthen the probability of continuation toward resistance. Without this confirmation, price may remain range-bound despite structural improvement.

What to expect in the coming price action

From a technical, price-action, and market-structure perspective, the market is attempting to transition from bearish control into a more constructive environment. The break of the local bearish structure, combined with strong volume support, suggests that a higher low may be forming.

In the near term, consolidation around the volume support zone is likely as the market searches for equilibrium. As long as the value area low holds, the probability favors a rotational move for XRP toward the $1.76 resistance level.

A decisive increase in bullish volume would confirm continuation, while failure to hold support would delay the recovery. For now, the technical landscape favors stabilization and potential upside rotation as the market attempts to establish a new structural trend.

Key Takeaways

• The Signal: Fed officials discussed “upward adjustments” to rates if inflation stays above target levels.
• The Split: The vote was 10-2 to hold rates, but a significant “hawkish” contingent is pushing back against cuts.
• The Risk: Higher-for-longer rates typically drain liquidity, creating headwinds for Bitcoin and ETF inflows.

Across the globe, it remains common for crypto users to have their bank accounts frozen and transfers blocked, even as institutional adoption rises.

Panos Mekras, co-founder and CEO of blockchain fintech Anodos Labs, began dealing with crypto in Greece in the late 2010s. Most Greek banks didn’t allow transfers to crypto exchanges back then. Mekras experienced blocked card payments until one bank finally permitted his transfers, but first, he was questioned to ensure he understood he was interacting with a “risky” counterparty.

Mekras told Cointelegraph that those early rejections are symptomatic of how banks treat digital assets as inherently high risk. That label often led to account closures or sudden freezes without explanation, ultimately pushing his business to rely solely on onchain tools and payment rails.

Public perception of crypto has since evolved. Now, crypto is undergoing an image refresh, from a speculative asset class to an infrastructure layer for future financial products. However, Mekras said he still experiences the same banking barriers, as recently as a “few months ago”:

“I tried to send money from an exchange to Revolut, and they froze my account for three weeks. I had no access to my [funds] during that time.”

The long shadow of crypto debanking

Mekras isn’t the lone crypto holder with such complaints despite banks announcing expansions into custody and blockchain initiatives.

A January report from the UK Cryptoasset Business Council found that bank transfers to exchanges were being blocked or delayed, with roughly 40% of payments encountering restrictions and 80% of exchanges reporting increased friction over the past year.

The council warned that blanket bans and transaction limits are often applied without regard to the legal status of the exchange.

Revolut is one of two banks that permit both bank transfers and debit cards in the UK council’s study, and it is also the platform where Mekras claims to have experienced his recent account freeze. It operates as an authorized UK bank “with restrictions,” meaning it is currently building up its banking processes before full launch. It also holds a European Union banking license through Lithuania and offers crypto trading services in its app.

A Revolut spokesperson told Cointelegraph it treats account freezes as a “last-resort” customer protection measure in compliance with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations.

“A temporary freeze may occur if our systems detect irregular activity. This could be a combination of a few factors, such as if a customer interacts with a platform frequently exploited by fraudsters, or we believe that the funds in question may be the proceeds of crime or sanctions circumvention,” the spokesperson said.

The representative added that since Oct. 1, just 0.7% of Revolut accounts where customers deposited crypto funds were restricted or frozen after investigation.

Related: How Europe’s blockchain sandbox finds innovation in regulation

When banks close doors, users move onchain

In some regions, crypto is blocked and leaves users to more extreme restrictions. Crypto on- and off-ramps are not legally possible in regions like China, so users resort to peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms or black markets to trade crypto.

While China sits on the extreme end of the spectrum, other jurisdictions have eased official and unofficial restrictions. Nigeria once banned crypto and even blocked P2P platforms. However, it formally recognized digital assets as securities in 2025.

Related: Crypto takeaways from Davos: Politics and money collide

Similar banking friction patterns also emerged in the US. Lawmakers and the industry have invoked the term “Operation Chokepoint 2.0” to describe the federal regulators’ informal guidance that discouraged banks from maintaining relationships with crypto companies.

The original “Operation Choke Point” was an initiative in which enforcement agencies were accused of pressuring banks to cut ties with politically contentious industries such as payday lenders and firearms sellers.

In January 2025, Donald Trump took office as the president of the US and has been pushing for crypto-friendly policies to position the world’s largest economy as the “crypto capital” of the world.

Crypto debanking issues have since been officially recognized. In December, the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released its findings on debanking practices by nine of the country’s largest banks. The OCC also published an interpretive letter to confirm that banks may facilitate crypto transactions in a broker-like capacity.

Regardless of the positive momentum, users still complain that the banking sector won’t service accounts exposed to cryptocurrencies.

“This is still the case [and] there are still anti-crypto positions. Some have even said publicly that they are not willing to support crypto activity or engage with the industry,” said Mekras.

Mekras argued that users can consider fully detaching from the traditional banking system and moving finances onchain. It sounds viable in theory, but in reality, most businesses and users still cannot operate purely within crypto without reliable access to fiat rails.

Banking’s turn toward blockchain infrastructure

In recent years, there has been a global shift in how traditional financial institutions engage with crypto.

Major banks and financial infrastructures are increasingly building products and services tied to Web3. In the US, 60% of the top 25 banks are reportedly offering or planning Bitcoin-related services, including custody, trading and advisory solutions.

Across Europe, regulated services such as crypto custody and settlement are being introduced by legacy exchanges and financial groups under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulations (MiCA). In the UK, HSBC’s blockchain platform was selected to support pilot issuances of tokenized government bonds.

In that backdrop of institutional adoption, some companies working to bridge banks and blockchain claim that the challenges that lead to account freezes are linked to tooling gaps and risk frameworks inside banks.

“The problem is that there’s a huge amount of friction because traditional banks don’t really have the internal infrastructure to interpret blockchain data in a way that fits inside their existing risk and compliance frameworks,” Eyal Daskal, CEO of Crymbo — a blockchain infrastructure platform for institutions — told Cointelegraph.

He described the situation as one where banks often default to precautionary measures because they lack the ability to link onchain activity with the identity and compliance signals they rely on:

“If crypto is involved, they block the account and treat it as out of scope. It’s the simplest option for them because they don’t have the tools to assess it properly.”

Crypto is entering the financial mainstream, but for many users, access to basic banking still depends on whether a bank’s risk engine can understand what happens onchain. Until that gap closes, the industry’s institutional embrace and retail friction may continue to coexist.

Magazine: Bitcoin may take 7 years to upgrade to post-quantum: BIP-360 co-author