BTC Falls Below $43K Despite Bitcoin ETF Momentum

• Bitcoin (BTC) has struggled to advance beyond $43,000 despite multiple attempts.
• A Bitcoin supporter, Nayib Bukele’s re-election win in El Salvador, boosts positive sentiment in the crypto market.

Despite Bitcoin’s (BTC) attempts to breach the $43,500 resistance level, it faced challenges in extending its gains, slipping below $42,800 in recent trading sessions. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $42,701, with a slight decline of 0.57% in the last 24 hours.

In contrast, BlackRock and Fidelity’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) experienced significant inflows, totaling $4.8 billion in January. The iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) by BlackRock saw approximately $2.6 billion in net flows. Meanwhile, the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin ETF (FBTC) ranked among the top ten with $2.2 billion in net flows.

Will Bitcoin Bulls Break the Stalemate?

Following a slight surge towards the end of January, Bitcoin has demonstrated steady movement throughout the week, trading within the range of $43,300 to $42,600. Also, the cryptocurrency’s price remains above the 20 and 50-day exponential moving averages, providing support to market buyers. 

Further, despite slipping under $43,000, data from Santiment suggests that whales, or large investors, continued to accumulate more Bitcoin. BTC’s intraday trading volume currently stands at $15.2 billion, indicating a potential uptick of 31.75%. 

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Chart (Source: TradingView)

Looking ahead, the next significant resistance for Bitcoin stands at $42,950, with a clear break potentially propelling the price towards $43,300 and $43,800 levels.

If Bitcoin fails to surpass the $42,950 resistance, the zone could trigger another downward trend, with immediate support near $42,650, followed by a major support at $42,250. A close below $42,250 could trigger bearish momentum, potentially pushing the price towards the below $41,000 support level.

However, in a separate turn, Nayib Bukele, who is a big supporter of Bitcoin, won re-election as President of El Salvador and has drawn attention in the crypto market. Bukele’s victory signals a positive sentiment, given El Salvador’s pioneering move to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021 under his leadership.