At Bitcoin 2026 in Las Vegas, Eric Trump and CEO of Calamos Investments John Koudounis sat down with Bloomberg ETF chief analyst Eric Balchunas to the group that overshadowed the maturation of bitcoin from a speculative tool to a global war.
The debate revolved around institutionalization, government bailouts, bankruptcy, and the challenge of winning over ordinary investors who still view bitcoin as too risky, too complicated, or both.
It was a group that showed how the room has changed – a combination of long-time bitcoin believers and new institutional money that, ten years ago, would have ended this meeting.
Trump: Bitcoin is a stable, finite economy
Trump opened up on the topic of design, arguing that bitcoin has become “sticky”. The US government now has about 300,000 bitcoins and cannot sell them, he said, which is related to production US strategic bitcoin reserve.
Corporate wealth buyers love The way and Metaplanetwhich exceeded 40,000 bitcoin in assets at the end of the first quarter of 2026, is doing the same. The world’s largest financial platforms – Trump named Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley – went in again.
American Bitcoin, a company Trump co-founded, mines bitcoin and holds every coin instead of selling it.
“We’re forcing bitcoin,” Trump said. “There are few things.”
The argument, in essence, is that organic sellers are leaving the market as a new class of sustainable workers takes their place.
Koudounis framed the bitcoin merger argument in terms of the capital’s massive change. He mentioned research showing that 124 trillion dollars of wealth will be transferred across generations through 2048, and said that 60 billion dollars that have moved to bitcoin ETFs so far represent a fraction of what is to come.
In his words, 60 billion dollars is about the size of the entire book of US financial managers. The fight against the transfer of 124 trillion dollars of accumulated Boomer wealth to the successors of Millennial and Gen Z who are more comfortable with the digital economy, counts as a starting point.
Koudounis told the audience that the union talks are already over. “In the past the question was, ‘Are you buying bitcoin?'” he said. “Now they say, ‘How much money are you giving?’
And the end of everything joining organizations means property: “Once the organizations are involved, it’s over.”
How can bitcoin attract retail customers?
Balchunas pressed both men on business issues, asking how to sell bitcoin to his mother – a representation of a generation of older investors who remain fearful of volatility and volatility. It is a question that the industry has not fully answered.
Bitcoin’s price history, with an 80% decline and a spectacular recovery, is not attractive to someone managing retirement savings.
In response to this turmoil, Koudounis said that Calamos has built a line of protection bitcoin ETFs that the cap at the bottom is smooth back, turning the considered restriction to be part of the money is gentle who wants to contact without rising all.
The goal, he said, is to increase bitcoin’s exposure to things already known to traditional investors.
Trump’s answer to the same question was very direct. Fixed income, he argued, is not a true strategy for modern productivity.
“Do yourself a favor, go invest in fixed income at 4%,” he said. “I’m going to invest in bitcoin. I’m going to remove the volatility and we’ll see who wins in 10 years.”
He said that BTC has grown about 70% annually over the past decade and called it “better gold,” adding that “every country in the world needs it.”
Trump’s biggest charge was not just a retreat. He spoke of the weakness of the currency and the instability of the country – to name a few Iran in particular – as the traditional reasons for storing valuables are under pressure, and he said that the ability of BTC to transfer value across borders without the intermediary of a bank is something that is very important in the way the existing systems look.
Decentralization, he said, is real and ongoing, and bitcoin was designed to prevent it. “Would you rather have the euro,” he asked, “or would you rather have bitcoin, an economy that has grown by 70% per year on average, year after year for the past ten years?”
Koudounis: Banks can ‘fire’ you at any time
When asked why he became an attorney at all, Trump’s answer was personal. He also described how major banks closed hundreds of accounts belonging to the Trump Organization — covering real estate, golf courses, and restaurants — following the January 6, 2021 riots at the Capitol.
JPMorgan has confirmed it closed those accounts. Trump and the Trump Organization after all suit filed against Capital One for similar closings.
“They dumped us like dogs,” Trump said on stage.
His experience in debt settlement, combined with what he described as slow wire transfers, pushing the bank, led him to look at bitcoin’s dysfunctional infrastructure. “That’s why I promote like hell in this job,” he said.
In terms of use, Trump admitted that the initial crypto technology was difficult, but said that the banks that are replacing it will be the force that makes the information easier.
“The business will grow,” he said, “the time of use becomes simpler and easier and less abusive.”
Koudounis expanded the defunding debate beyond the Trumps. He drew on his own history, describing the 2015 crisis in Greece credit problemwhen the government imposed a daily limit on bank account withdrawals it took almost four years for the money order to be removed.
Citizens woke up one day to find that the government had put a ceiling on what they could afford.
“You don’t have to be the Trumps to deal with the banks,” Koudounis said. “This could happen to anyone. You, me, any of us.”
Banks told you not to leave, then ‘enter’ bitcoin
Then Koudounis showed interest in his own finances. Even though banks have spent years publicly withdrawing BTC and warning customers away from them, they are building a foundation to invest in invisibly.
“The banks will know,” he said, and gave the group a summary: “You’ve won.”
Trump closed with three words that caught the crowd’s attention. He called the government’s spending “horrendous” and pointed to a federal investigation that found some government money to be fraudulent, citing it as evidence of why transparent, stable, sustainable money has more real value around the world than trade.
If fraud of this scale is difficult to solve in the world’s most regulated country, he argued, it is a systemic problem that the BTC ledger is designed to solve. He admitted that the basics were difficult for those who had three months ago but told the audience not to take the course.
He then closed his comments with a clear note: “I have absolute conviction that bitcoin will hit one million dollars…
