The Financial Post reports in its Friday, Feb. 7, edition that bitcoin's value has fallen nearly 50 per cent since its October high. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post reports that the institutional support around bitcoin, however, remains intact. While some short-term investors are leaving, long-term holders are proving resilient, creating a contrarian bull case. The bearish case needs no help. After Wednesday's rebound, bitcoin weakened Thursday in Asia trading, falling as much as 1.9 per cent to $67,600 (U.S.), a far cry from its October peak above $126,000 (U.S.) and a $1-trillion (U.S.) market fall. Nearly 45 per cent of coins are worth less than their purchase price. Options traders seek crash protection as faith in institutional adoption fades. Weeks of ETF outflows suggest that the mainstream experiment is failing. Yet contrarians say those outflow numbers need context. Blockforce Capital's Brett Munster points out that cumulative net inflows into spot bitcoin ETFs since their January, 2024, launch amount to tens of billions of dollars. The chunk that has left in the recent streak comes out to just about 6 per cent of the total. He sees consolidation rather than capitulation among this investor base.