{"id":51998,"date":"2026-04-29T15:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T20:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/?p=51998"},"modified":"2026-04-29T15:28:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T20:28:21","slug":"eric-trump-john-koudounis-bitcoin-asset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/news\/eric-trump-john-koudounis-bitcoin-asset","title":{"rendered":"Eric Trump, John Koudounis Call Bitcoin a Global Reserve Asset, Float $1M Price Target"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At Bitcoin 2026 in Las Vegas, Eric Trump and Calamos Investments CEO John Koudounis sat down with Bloomberg senior ETF analyst <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EricBalchunas\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EricBalchunas\">Eric Balchunas<\/a> for a panel that covered bitcoin&#8217;s maturation from speculative instrument to global reserve contender.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The conversation ranged across institutional adoption, government debanking, currency debasement, and the challenge of winning over ordinary investors who still view bitcoin as too risky, too complex, or both.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was a panel that reflected how much the room has changed \u2014 a mix of long-time bitcoin believers and fresh institutional money that, a decade ago, would have dismissed this gathering entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Trump: Bitcoin is a sticky, limited supply asset<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump opened on a structural theme, arguing that bitcoin has become &#8220;sticky.&#8221; The U.S. government now holds approximately 300,000 bitcoin and will not sell, he said, a claim consistent with the creation of a <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/news\/the-united-states-officially-establishes-a-strategic-bitcoin-reserve\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/news\/the-united-states-officially-establishes-a-strategic-bitcoin-reserve\">U.S. strategic bitcoin reserve<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Corporate treasury buyers like <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/tags\/strategy\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/tags\/strategy\">Strategy<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/tags\/metaplanet\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/tags\/metaplanet\">Metaplanet<\/a>, which surpassed 40,000 bitcoin in holdings by the end of the first quarter of 2026, are doing the same. The world&#8217;s largest financial platforms \u2014 Trump named Charles Schwab and <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/news\/morgan-stanleys-spot-bitcoin-etf-tops-139m-in-assets-within-nine-days\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/news\/morgan-stanleys-spot-bitcoin-etf-tops-139m-in-assets-within-nine-days\">Morgan Stanley<\/a> \u2014 have also moved in.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">JUST IN: \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 Eric Trump just dropped a bombshell at The Bitcoin Conference:<br><br>&quot;The US government holds 300,000 BTC and will not sell it.&quot;<br><br>&quot;The middle east is using energy from cities that they don&#39;t need to&#8230;mine bitcoin.&quot;<br><br>&quot;The suppression of bitcoin is unbelievable.&quot; \ud83d\udc40 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LdBU50faIs\">pic.twitter.com\/LdBU50faIs<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BitcoinMagazine\/status\/2049571580842524876?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">April 29, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">American Bitcoin, the company Trump co-founded, is mining bitcoin and holding every coin rather than selling.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We are compressing bitcoin,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;There is a limited supply.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The argument, in essence, is that the natural sellers are leaving the market while a new class of permanent holders takes their place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Koudounis put the bitcoin supply compression argument in the context of a broader capital shift. He cited <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cerulli.com\/press-releases\/cerulli-anticipates-124-trillion-in-wealth-will-transfer-through-2048\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.cerulli.com\/press-releases\/cerulli-anticipates-124-trillion-in-wealth-will-transfer-through-2048\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">research<\/a> projecting that 124 trillion dollars in wealth will transfer across generations through 2048, and said the 60 billion dollars that have moved into spot bitcoin ETFs so far represent a fraction of what is coming.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For context, 60 billion dollars is roughly the size of a mid-tier U.S. asset manager&#8217;s total book. Set against a 124 trillion dollar transfer of accumulated Boomer wealth to Millennial and Gen Z inheritors who are far more comfortable with digital assets, it reads as a starting line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Koudounis told the audience that the institutional conversation has already moved on. &#8220;The question used to be, &#8216;Are you buying bitcoin?'&#8221; he said. &#8220;Now it&#8217;s, &#8216;What percent are you allocating?'&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And his conclusion on what full <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/tags\/institutional-adoption\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/tags\/institutional-adoption\">institutional entry<\/a> means for the asset: &#8220;Once institutions get involved, it&#8217;s game over.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How can bitcoin attract retail clients?\u00a0\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Balchunas pressed both men on the retail challenge, asking how they would sell bitcoin to his mother \u2014 a stand-in for the generation of older investors who remain nervous about volatility and complexity. It is a question the industry has never fully answered.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bitcoin&#8217;s price history, with its 80% drawdowns and euphoric recoveries, is not a comfortable pitch to someone managing a fixed retirement income.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In response to this quandary, Koudounis said that Calamos has built a line of protected bitcoin ETFs that cap downside and smooth returns, turning a perceived deterrent into a feature for conservative investors who want exposure without the full ride.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The goal, he said, is to add bitcoin exposure to products that already feel familiar to traditional investors.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump&#8217;s answer to the same question was more direct. Fixed income, he argued, is not a genuine alternative at current yields.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Do yourself a favor, go invest in fixed income at 4%,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I&#8217;ll invest in bitcoin. I&#8217;ll ride out the volatility and we&#8217;ll see who wins that equation in a 10-year period of time.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He claimed BTC has averaged roughly 70% annual growth per year over the past decade and called it &#8220;a better gold,&#8221; adding that &#8220;every country in this world needs it.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The macro case Trump made was not only about returns. He pointed to currency weakness and geopolitical instability \u2014 citing <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/news\/as-bombs-fall-on-tehran-irans-crypto\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/news\/as-bombs-fall-on-tehran-irans-crypto\">Iran specifically<\/a> \u2014 as reasons traditional store-of-value assets are under pressure, and argued that BTC&#8217;s ability to transfer value across borders without a bank intermediary is a feature that becomes more valuable the more fragile existing systems look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Currency debasement, he said, is real and ongoing, and bitcoin is designed to resist it. &#8220;Would you rather have the euro,&#8221; he asked, &#8220;or would you rather have bitcoin, an asset that&#8217;s grown at 70% a year on average, year over year for the last decade? It&#8217;s not even close.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Koudounis: Banks can \u2018debank\u2019 you at any time <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the question of why he became an advocate at all, Trump&#8217;s answer was personal. He described how major banks shut down hundreds of Trump Organization accounts \u2014 covering buildings, golf courses, and restaurants \u2014 following the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JPMorgan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/21\/business\/jpmorgan-trump-debanking.html\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/21\/business\/jpmorgan-trump-debanking.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">has since confirmed<\/a> it closed those accounts. Trump and the Trump Organization later <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2025\/03\/07\/trump-organization-lawsuit-capital-one-account-closures-jan-6-riot.html\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2025\/03\/07\/trump-organization-lawsuit-capital-one-account-closures-jan-6-riot.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">filed suit<\/a> against Capital One over similar closures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;They threw us away like dogs,&#8221; Trump said on stage.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">JUST IN: \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 Eric Trump explains how getting unbanked made him go all in on Bitcoin:<br><br>&quot;I can&#39;t tell you had many accounts we had turned off in the middle of the night for not doing a damn thing wrong.&quot;<br><br>&quot;I became hell bent on taking on these banks and fixing this system.&quot; \ud83d\udfe0 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vtNk6qEaDC\">pic.twitter.com\/vtNk6qEaDC<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BitcoinMagazine\/status\/2049585015198273689?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">April 29, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The debanking experience, combined with what he described as slow, friction-heavy bank wire transfers, pushed him toward bitcoin&#8217;s censorship-resistant architecture. &#8220;That&#8217;s why I advocate like hell for this industry,&#8221; he said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On usability, Trump conceded that early crypto technology was clunky, but said banks entering the space will be the force that finally makes the experience simple. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The industry will grow,&#8221; he said, &#8220;when the user experience is simple and easy and not torturous.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Koudounis broadened the debanking argument beyond the Trumps. He drew on personal history, recounting Greece&#8217;s 2015 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.piie.com\/sites\/default\/files\/documents\/greek-debt-crisis.pdf\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.piie.com\/sites\/default\/files\/documents\/greek-debt-crisis.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">debt crisis<\/a>, when the government imposed daily withdrawal limits on bank accounts that lasted roughly four years before capital controls were fully lifted.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Citizens woke up one day to find the state had placed a ceiling on how much of their own money they could access.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;You don&#8217;t have to be the Trumps to be targeted by banks,&#8221; Koudounis said. &#8220;This can happen to anybody. You, me, any of us.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Banks told you to stay away, then &#8216;snuck into&#8217; bitcoin <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Koudounis then turned the spotlight on the financial industry&#8217;s own behavior. While banks spent years publicly dismissing BTC and warning customers away from it, they were constructing the infrastructure to invest in it out of sight.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Banks got the clue,&#8221; he said, and delivered a pointed summary to the crowd: &#8220;You guys won.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump closed with three statements that drew the loudest reaction of the panel. He called government spending &#8220;dangerous&#8221; and pointed to a federal investigation that found some government spending to be fraudulent, citing it as evidence for why a transparent, programmable, decentralized form of money has real-world value beyond trading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If fraud of that scale is hard to eliminate in the best-administered country on earth, he argued, it is a structural problem that BTC&#8217;s transparent ledger is built to address. He acknowledged the macro backdrop has been rough for holders over the past three months but told the audience to stay the course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And then he closed his remarks in plain terms: &#8220;I have absolute conviction that bitcoin is going to hit one million dollars\u2026 I&#8217;ve never been more bullish on this asset class in my life.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GDOH5320-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"bitcoin\" class=\"wp-image-52001\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GDOH5320-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GDOH5320-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GDOH5320-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GDOH5320-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GDOH5320-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GDOH5320-280x420.jpg 280w, https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GDOH5320-696x1044.jpg 696w, https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GDOH5320-1068x1602.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GDOH5320-1920x2880.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GDOH5320-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>American Bitcoin Co-Founder and Calamos CEO John Koudounis told attendees at Bitcoin 2026 in Las Vegas that the ownership structure of bitcoin has changed in a way that makes a price retreat less likely, and both men urged skeptics to reconsider the asset before a coming wave of institutional and generational capital arrives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3817,"featured_media":52002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4378],"tags":[392,5845,76,6514,4279],"class_list":["post-51998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-adoption","tag-america-bitcoin","tag-bitcoin","tag-calamos","tag-eric-trump"],"author_data":{"id":3817,"name":"Micah Zimmerman","nicename":"micahzimmerman","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Micah_Zimmerman_Author_Image.jpg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Bitcoin-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}