Speaking on CNBC on September 22, 2026, John Koudounis, chief executive of Calamos Investments, argued that the institutional debate over Bitcoin has moved past whether to own it and become a sizing question. “It’s not our view in bitcoin, it’s how much are you allocated,” Koudounis said, adding a conviction line: “Bitcoin is here to stay. That’s what we feel. That’s what we believe.”
Readers should have the commercial context up front. Calamos, which manages $53 billion in assets, launched a principal-protected Bitcoin ETF last year that offers full protection, along with versions protecting 90% and 80% of principal. Koudounis runs the firm that sells those products and is on television arguing investors should hold an allocation to the asset they track. That does not invalidate the argument, but it frames it.
Sizing, Not Signaling
Koudounis’s reframe lands against a Bitcoin tape that has swung hard in both directions this year. Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) traded at $85,838.38 as of 6:44 AM Eastern on September 23, 2026. He pointed to institutional plumbing catching up with the asset, telling CNBC that major banks including JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley have shifted from non-participation to lending against Bitcoin, and referencing recent SEC rulings as supporting broader acceptance. He offered no target allocation percentage.
Koudounis also floated a market-timing view that deserves careful labeling. He described Bitcoin as trading in four-year cycles, with October expected to mark the low before a multi-year rise. Present that as his forecast. Cycle theory is not established market fact, and he did not give a price target or a specific date.
AI as Structural, With a Caveat
On artificial intelligence, Koudounis was equally direct. “AI is here. It’s not going anywhere, according to Calamos Investments. We tell our investors you have to be involved,” he said, framing exposure as a structural theme. On the segment, he attributed roughly 30% of recent gains in the GDP figure to AI. We are not endorsing that number in our own voice, and he did not specify the quarter or the methodology behind it. For context, the most recent U.S. real GDP growth reading came in at 1.5% annualized.
The counterweight is the most useful thing he said, and it sits alongside the AI conviction. “It’s a stock pickers market too, because not all the trades are going to do well, according to Calamos Investments. Not all the companies are going to do well,” Koudounis said. He distinguished infrastructure and software plays as trading with different risk profiles, warning that indiscriminate AI exposure carries real risk. His actual position pairs the two lines: get exposure, but do not treat the theme as a single trade.
Volatility as the Design Problem
Koudounis’s portfolio advice avoided timing the Fed and trading around geopolitical or oil shocks. “You have to be in a diversified portfolio, and you have to be in products that you can take these type of volatile swings in the market in order for you to have good, consistent returns,” he told CNBC, according to Calamos Investments. Volatility-managed and outcome-oriented products are a Calamos category, which is consistent with the disclosure above and worth flagging again.
The Bitcoin backdrop for that pitch is instructive. Over the past week Bitcoin was up 13.59%, and over the past year it was down 22.79%. Investors weighing Koudounis’s framework can consult Calamos’s ETF product page for the specific structures he referenced. The size of the allocation, as he framed it, is the decision that matters.