Pius Sprenger Shorted Subprime. Now He Sees It Again.

Pius Sprenger Shorted Subprime. Now He Sees It Again.

From The Bitcoin Matrix by Cedric Youngelman

May 4, 2026 · 2h 9m

About this episode

Pius Sprenger discusses his experiences on Wall Street and the mathematical predictions for Bitcoin's future growth.

Pius Sprenger has a PhD in mathematics and spent twenty-five years on Wall Street. He was hired to Deutsche Bank in 2004 and ended up on Greg Lippmann's derivatives desk — the desk Ryan Gosling's character runs in The Big Short . In February 2007 he co-built the ABX index with Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns. He held his short position for nearly three years while senior management told him he was wrong. He was right. He left Wall Street in 2020. Today he is a founding member of the Scientific Bitcoin Institute alongside Giovanni Santostasi and Steven Perino — peer-reviewed researchers applying the power law to Bitcoin's growth. Their math says $1M per Bitcoin in 8–9 years. $7–8M in 17 years. Falsifiable. Scientific. Not a guess. And he is sounding the alarm again. Wall Street is now packaging Bitcoin into structured products the way it packaged subprime in 2007. Pius has seen this movie. He has the receipts. If you've heard "$1M Bitcoin" and dismissed it as hyperbole — this is the conversation to send to whoever you're trying to convince. We discuss: The Bitcoin Power Law explained — adoption to the power of 3, network value to the power of 2 — and why the math gives you $1M in…

People in this episode

Host: Cedric Youngelman

Guest: Pius Sprenger

Topics covered

  • Bitcoin
  • subprime mortgage crisis
  • financial markets
  • mathematics in finance
  • investment strategies
  • Wall Street

Keywords

  • Bitcoin
  • subprime
  • financial crisis
  • investment
  • mathematics
  • structured products
  • ABX index
  • Wall Street

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, Scientific Bitcoin Institute

Books & works: The Big Short

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