Bitcoin's BTC maintains a sideways price action oscillating between $42,000 and $43,000.  At the time of writing, Bitcoin was exchanging hands at $42,676, down 0.21% over the last 24 hours.

Other major cryptocurrencies were also in the red with the second largest crypto by market capitalization, Ethereum, down 0.08% to trade at $2,311.

The global crypto market capitalization was up 0.1% to $1.64 trillion. Bitcoin dominance remained more than half of the total at 50.10%, with a market capitalization of $837.1 billion.

Cryptocurrency performance Feb. 2. Source: Coin360

With a choppy price movement and a consolidation within key support levels, traders are waiting for triggers that would cause Bitcoin to determine a directional bias.

Nayib Bukele's landslide win of the El Salvadoran elections on Sunday could increase trader's optimism of the faith the citizens of the Latin American country have in his policies. It should be remembered that in Sept. 2021, through an Act of Parliament, Bukele made Bitcoin a legal tender in El Salvador, making it the first country in the world to do so. Could his win trigger some movement in BTC's price upward?

With the expected long-term impacts of spot Bitcoin ETFs and the approaching halving (less than 120 days away), the big crypto is expected to scale higher.

Bitcoin price analysis

The BTC price is trading in a sideways movement with no directional bias. This is accompanied with decreased price volatility.

The appearance of two doji candlesticks on the daily chart supports this horizontal price action, and also suggests that buying and selling pressure are balancing out.

The relative strength index (RSI) is at 51, close to the midline, suggesting that the buyers and sellers are balancing out. This trend-following indicator was also levelling out close to the midline, attesting to the decreasing price volatility. All the major moving averages were also flattening out.

As such, if BTC moves in favour of the buyers, it could rise from the current levels toward the $43,300. Higher than that, the next level to watch was the $45,000 level and later the $49,000. This would represent a 14.5% increase from the current price.

BTC/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

On the downside, sellers may win the ongoing battle causing the price to turn down from the current levels. If this happens, the 50-day exponential moving average at $42,154 would provide the first line of defense. An additional area of support could be provided by the 100-day EMA at $40,091 before reaching the support level at $38,000.