Bull Case for Bitcoin Hides in $1-T Wreckage

Bitcoin has been cut almost in half since its October high. By almost every measure, the selloff is the worst since the collapse of FTX.

Nearly 45% of all coins are now worth less than what their holders paid.

But there is a puzzle at the center of the wreckage: The institutional scaffolding built around the coin during the boom has not collapsed with it, Vildana Hajric and Isabelle Lee reported for Bloomberg News on Feb. 26, 2026.

ETF money has mostly stayed. Wall Street remains involved.

And while some tactical investors have headed for the exits, longer-term holders have proved harder to shake loose.

That disconnect between price and market resilience is fueling a contrarian bull case that the selloff has largely drowned out.

The bearish case, however, needs no help.

After Wednesday’s rebound, Bitcoin weakened Thursday morning in Asia trading, falling as much as 1.9% to about $67,600 — far below its October peak above $126,000 and representing a roughly $1 trillion market-value decline.

Nearly 45% of all coins are now worth less than what their holders paid. Options traders are paying up for crash protection. Faith that institutional adoption would cushion the downside has faded.

Weeks of ETF outflows have led many to conclude that the mainstream experiment is faltering.

Yet contrarians argue that the outflow numbers need context.

Brett Munster of Blockforce Capital notes that cumulative net inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs since their January 2024 launch total tens of billions of dollars. The recent outflows amount to only about 6% of that total.