At Bitcoin 2026 in Las Vegas, Eric Trump and Calamos Investments CEO John Koudounis joined Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas for a discussion exploring bitcoin’s evolution from a speculative asset to a potential global reserve currency.
The panel touched on a range of topics, including institutional adoption, government debanking, currency devaluation, and the ongoing challenge of convincing everyday investors who still see bitcoin as too volatile, too complicated, or both.
The event itself was a testament to how much the landscape has shifted — bringing together longtime bitcoin advocates and a wave of institutional capital that, just ten years ago, would have dismissed such a gathering outright.
Trump: Bitcoin Is a Scarce, “Sticky” Asset
Trump began with a structural argument, describing bitcoin as increasingly “sticky.” He noted that the U.S. government now holds roughly 300,000 bitcoin and has no plans to sell — a stance aligned with the establishment of a U.S. strategic bitcoin reserve.
Corporate treasury buyers such as Strategy and Metaplanet, which crossed the 40,000 bitcoin threshold by the end of Q1 2026, are following the same playbook. Major financial platforms — Trump specifically mentioned Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley — have also entered the space.
American Bitcoin, the mining company Trump co-founded, mines bitcoin and retains every coin rather than liquidating.
“We are compressing bitcoin,” Trump said. “There is a limited supply.”
The core thesis is straightforward: natural sellers are exiting the market while a new category of permanent holders is stepping in to take their place.
Koudounis framed the supply compression narrative within the context of a much larger capital reallocation. He referenced research estimating that $124 trillion in wealth will change hands across generations through 2048, and noted that the $60 billion that has flowed into spot bitcoin ETFs to date is just a fraction of what lies ahead.
To put that figure in perspective, $60 billion is roughly equivalent to the total assets under management of a mid-tier U.S. asset manager. But measured against a $124 trillion intergenerational wealth transfer from Baby Boomers to Millennial and Gen Z heirs — demographics far more receptive to digital assets — it looks more like a starting point than a peak.
Koudounis told the audience that the institutional conversation has already evolved. “The question used to be, ‘Are you buying bitcoin?'” he said. “Now it’s, ‘What percent are you allocating?'”
And his take on what full institutional participation means for the asset: “Once institutions get involved, it’s game over.”
How Can Bitcoin Win Over Retail Investors?
Balchunas challenged both panelists on the retail adoption question, asking how they would pitch bitcoin to his mother — a proxy for the older generation of investors who remain wary of volatility and complexity. It is a question the industry has yet to fully crack.
Bitcoin’s price history, marked by 80% drawdowns followed by euphoric rebounds, is a tough sell for anyone living on a fixed retirement income.
Addressing this concern, Koudounis explained that Calamos has developed a suite of protected bitcoin ETFs that limit downside risk and smooth returns, transforming what many see as a drawback into an advantage for conservative investors who want exposure without riding the full rollercoaster.
The objective, he said, is to embed bitcoin exposure into products that already feel familiar to traditional investors.
Trump’s response to the same question was more blunt. He argued that fixed income, at current yields, is not a real alternative.
“Do yourself a favor, go invest in fixed income at 4%,” he said. “I’ll invest in bitcoin. I’ll ride out the volatility and we’ll see who wins that equation over a 10-year period.”
He claimed BTC has delivered roughly 70% annualized growth over the past decade and called it “a better gold,” adding that “every country in this world needs it.”
Trump’s macro argument went beyond returns. He pointed to currency weakness and geopolitical instability — citing Iran as an example — as reasons traditional stores of value are under strain, and argued that bitcoin’s ability to move value across borders without a bank intermediary becomes increasingly valuable the more fragile existing systems appear.
Currency debasement, he said, is real and ongoing, and bitcoin is purpose-built to resist it. “Would you rather have the euro,” he asked, “or would you rather have bitcoin, an asset that’s grown at 70% a year on average, year over year for the last decade? It’s not even close.”
Koudounis: Banks Can “Debank” You at Any Time
When asked what drove him to become an advocate in the first place, Trump’s answer was deeply personal. He recounted how major banks shut down hundreds of Trump Organization accounts — spanning buildings, golf courses, and restaurants — in the aftermath of the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
JPMorgan has since confirmed it closed those accounts. Trump and the Trump Organization later filed a lawsuit against Capital One over similar account closures.
“They threw us away like dogs,” Trump said on stage.
The debanking experience, combined with what he described as slow, friction-laden bank wire transfers, drove him toward bitcoin’s censorship-resistant design. “That’s why I advocate like hell for this industry,” he said.
On the topic of usability, Trump acknowledged that early crypto technology was cumbersome, but argued that banks entering the space will be the catalyst that finally makes the experience seamless.
“The industry will grow,” he said, “when the user experience is simple and easy and not torturous.”
Koudounis expanded the debanking argument well beyond the Trump family’s experience. Drawing on personal history, he recalled Greece’s 2015 debt crisis, when the government imposed daily withdrawal limits on bank accounts — restrictions that persisted for roughly four years before capital controls were fully lifted.
Citizens woke up one day to discover the state had placed a cap on how much of their own money they could access.
“You don’t have to be the Trumps to be targeted by banks,” Koudounis said. “This can happen to anybody. You, me, any of us.”
Banks Told You to Stay Away, ThenQuietly Entered the Bitcoin Space
Koudounis then focused on actions within the financial world itself. For years, banks had openly mocked BTC and steered their clients away from it — yet behind the scenes, they were quietly building the systems needed to invest in it without anyone noticing.
“Banks finally figured it out,” he remarked, turning to the audience with a blunt verdict: “You all won.”
Trump ended the panel with three remarks that generated the strongest reaction of the entire discussion. He described government spending as “risky,” pointing to a federal audit that uncovered certain expenditures as fraudulent. He used this as proof that a transparent, programmable, and decentralized currency holds genuine real-world utility far beyond mere speculation.
He argued that if fraud on that scale is difficult to root out even in the world’s most well-managed nation, then it is an inherent weakness — one that Bitcoin’s open and visible ledger is specifically designed to solve. He acknowledged that the broader economic climate has been challenging for investors over the last three months but urged those in attendance to hold firm.
He wrapped up his argument in unmistakable language: “I am absolutely certain bitcoin will reach one million dollars… I have never felt more optimistic about this asset class in my entire life.”
