Bitcoin Magazine

Eric Trump, John Koudounis Call Bitcoin a Global Reserve Asset, Float $1M Price Target

At Bitcoin 2026 in Las Vegas, Eric Trump and Calamos Investments CEO John Koudounis sat down with Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas for a panel that covered bitcoin’s maturation from speculative instrument to global reserve contender. 

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. 

It was a panel that reflected how much the room has changed — a mix of long-time bitcoin believers and fresh institutional money that, a decade ago, would have dismissed this gathering entirely.

Trump: Bitcoin is a sticky, limited supply asset

Trump opened on a structural theme, arguing that bitcoin has become “sticky.” The U.S. government now holds approximately 300,000 bitcoin and will not sell, he said, a claim consistent with the creation of a U.S. strategic bitcoin reserve. 

Corporate treasury buyers like Strategy and Metaplanet, which surpassed 40,000 bitcoin in holdings by the end of the first quarter of 2026, are doing the same. The world’s largest financial platforms — Trump named Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley — have also moved in. 

JUST IN: Eric Trump just dropped a bombshell at The Bitcoin Conference:

"The US government holds 300,000 BTC and will not sell it."

"The middle east is using energy from cities that they don't need to…mine bitcoin."

"The suppression of bitcoin is unbelievable." pic.twitter.com/LdBU50faIs

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) April 29, 2026

American Bitcoin, the company Trump co-founded, is mining bitcoin and holding every coin rather than selling. 

“We are compressing bitcoin,” Trump said. “There is a limited supply.”

The argument, in essence, is that the natural sellers are leaving the market while a new class of permanent holders takes their place.

Koudounis put the bitcoin supply compression argument in the context of a broader capital shift. He cited research 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. 

For context, 60 billion dollars is roughly the size of a mid-tier U.S. asset manager’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.

Koudounis told the audience that the institutional conversation has already moved on. “The question used to be, ‘Are you buying bitcoin?'” he said. “Now it’s, ‘What percent are you allocating?'”

And his conclusion on what full institutional entry means for the asset: “Once institutions get involved, it’s game over.”

How can bitcoin attract retail clients?  

Balchunas pressed both men on the retail challenge, asking how they would sell bitcoin to his mother — 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. 

Bitcoin’s price history, with its 80% drawdowns and euphoric recoveries, is not a comfortable pitch to someone managing a fixed retirement income.