Author: Clow
Produced by: Plain Language Blockchain
Last night, the crypto market witnessed another heart-stopping series of liquidations.
Well-known investor Jeffrey Huang (aka "Machi Big Brother") saw his long positions liquidated as many as 10 times in a short period on the decentralized derivatives platform Hyperliquid. His account balance plummeted from the previous $1.3 million to just $53,178—less than 5% of its original value.
This is the cruelest scene of high-leverage trading: over $1.25 million in funds evaporated within hours.
More ironically, just days before, he had injected 254,700 USDC into Hyperliquid, increasing his ETH long position to 11,100 ETH, with a total value exceeding $36 million. Yet, just a few days later, this newly injected capital, along with previous reserves, was once again crushed in the high-leverage meat grinder.
If the story ended here, it would be just another tragic ending for a high-leverage gambler.
But this is not the first time he has performed such "god-like operations." As early as October 10, 2024, he experienced an even more dramatic liquidation: a $79 million ETH long position was forcibly liquidated, his account swiftly reversed from a profit of $44.5 million to a net loss of $10 million, resulting in a profit-and-loss reversal of over $54.5 million.
Yet, after each previous liquidation, he would immediately replenish his margin and embark on the next high-stakes gamble: depositing $199,800 on December 12, $275,000 on November 5, and injecting another $254,700 just days ago......
Even more ironically, while media widely reported his massive losses, Huang shared a poolside photo on Instagram with the caption: "California Love."
Last night's 10 consecutive liquidations sent his account balance to rock bottom again—just $53,178. But based on his past behavior patterns, it's highly likely that it won't be long before he injects new funds and restarts his high-leverage gambling.
This raises a question everyone wants answered: After repeatedly suffering tens of millions of dollars in losses, and still being able to mechanically replenish margin again and again, where does his money actually come from?
01. The Crazy Leverage Game
To understand the source of Huang's funds, one must first see his trading style in the crypto market—extremely aggressive.
He is mainly active on the decentralized derivatives exchange Hyperliquid. This platform uses the HyperBFT high-performance consensus mechanism, enabling "millisecond-level matching speeds." It sounds cool, but during periods of high market volatility, this speed also brings structural risks: high-leverage positions can be liquidated quickly and mechanically, leaving traders "no chance to escape."
Huang偏偏 loves this kind of极限 operation. On-chain data shows he frequently uses extreme leverage of 15x to 25x for ETH long operations. This leverage倍数 means the market only needs to drop 4-6% for his entire margin to be wiped out. And last night's consecutive 10 liquidations were a true portrayal of this extreme leverage during剧烈 market波动.
Behind this疯狂 trading模式 lies a shocking fact: no matter how much he loses, he can immediately replenish the margin and continue gambling. From the $54.5 million profit-and-loss reversal to last night's account balance nearly zeroing out, after each huge loss, he has been able to inject hundreds of thousands of dollars in a short time, even重新 establishing positions worth tens of millions of dollars.
This behavior of immediately deploying new margin after suffering tens of millions in losses proves that these losses do not stem from the depletion of his overall net assets, but are drawn from a specially allocated, highly liquid trading reserve.
So, how was this seemingly bottomless pool of funds established?
02. Where Does the Money Come From? Unveiling the Three-Tier Capital Structure
Tier 1: "Anchor Capital" from Traditional Tech
Huang's wealth foundation is not entirely dependent on crypto assets. Before becoming the "God of Gamblers in Crypto," he was a successful tech entrepreneur.
In 2015, Huang co-founded 17 Media (later M17 Entertainment/17LIVE). This platform quickly grew into a leading live-streaming entertainment platform in Asia. After a failed NY IPO in 2018, it successfully listed in Singapore in 2023.
The most critical financial event occurred in November 2020. Huang announced his resignation from the 17LIVE board, and in this process, 17LIVE repurchased his shares in the company.
This equity repurchase event, coinciding with the onset of the 2021 crypto bull market, provided Huang with "anchor capital." This cash liquidity from an established business laid a solid financial foundation for his subsequent high-risk investments in the crypto market, sufficient to ensure he could withstand huge short-term losses in his derivative trading.
Tier 2: The Controversial Past of Early Crypto Projects
Besides success in traditional tech, Huang was also deeply involved in early crypto projects, but this history is full of controversy.
The most representative is the Mithril (MITH) project. Huang was the founder of this decentralized social media platform. However, the project was later evaluated as "only a concept, with粗糙 products and no real users." Although the MITH token price plummeted over 99% after the market cooled, and the project was eventually delisted in 2022, public reports clearly stated that the token issuer "made a lot of money" in the early stages of the project.
This reflects the typical chaos of the 2017-2018 ICO era: regardless of the project's long-term utility or sustainability, founders could obtain substantial capital through the initial token generation event. Meanwhile, a large number of retail investors suffered heavy losses after the projects collapsed.
Huang also co-founded the decentralized lending protocol Cream Finance (CREAM). The protocol experienced multiple major security incidents in 2021, including a $34 million exploit and a flash loan attack amounting to $130 million.
It must be emphasized that the ultimate failure of these early projects caused significant losses to investors. This history is provided仅 as background context and does not constitute investment advice for any similar projects.
Tier 3: Liquidity Extraction from the NFT Empire
Building on traditional capital and early crypto projects, Huang uses NFT assets as a financial tool to continuously generate highly liquid crypto assets to supplement his trading reserves.
Huang is a famous collector of top NFT series like Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). As of June 2023, the NFTs held in his Ethereum wallet associated with machibigbrother.eth were valued at over $9.5 million.
However, his NFT strategy goes far beyond simple collection; it is an advanced financial strategy focused on liquidity generation:
Large-Scale Selling Events: In February 2023, he sold 1,010 NFTs within 48 hours, one of "the largest NFT sell-offs in history."
ApeCoin Realization: In August 2022, he sold 13 MAYC (worth about $350,000) within a week and transferred 1.4966 million ApeCoin to Binance.
Blur Liquidity Mining: He was a massive recipient of the Blur token airdrop and actively used the Blur Blend platform for NFT collateralized lending, once being the platform's largest lender, providing 58 loans totaling 1,180 ETH.
The purpose of this high-frequency, large-scale selling and NFT lending activity is to maximize airdrop rewards and convert high-value digital assets into highly liquid ETH or stablecoins, thereby continuously supplying ammunition to his derivatives trading reserves.
It is worth mentioning that while engaging in Blur NFT liquidity mining activities, Huang also incurred costs. He realized a loss of approximately 2,400 ETH (worth about $4.2 million) while trying to mine tokens through Bored Ape NFTs. But this $4.2 million loss was likely offset by the huge profits he obtained from the massive Blur airdrop and other asset liquidations.
03. The Perpetual Capital Machine
Therefore, Huang's ability to continuously absorb tens of millions of dollars in liquidation losses and immediately reopen aggressive positions stems from a diversified and庞大的 capital structure:
Traditional Tech Exit: Stable and large-scale fiat currency liquidity obtained through the sale of 17LIVE shares in 2020.
Early Crypto-Native Capital: Although the projects themselves were controversial, the early token issuance did accumulate crypto-native capital.
High-Speed NFT Liquidity Generation: Strategically converting high-value blue-chip NFT assets into ETH or stablecoins usable for margin through large-scale sales, airdrop reward acquisition, and NFT collateralized lending.
Given the publicly confirmed total main liquidation and profit-and-loss reversal amounts (over $54.5 million), and his ability to immediately inject hundreds of thousands of dollars in margin multiple times after liquidations, to maintain such a high-risk trading style, the scale of his unallocated liquid reserves is conservatively estimated to be over $100 million.
Even after experiencing 10 consecutive liquidations last night, leaving his account balance at just $53,178, based on his past behavior patterns, it's highly likely new funds will be injected soon. Huang's calm attitude—sharing a pool photo on Instagram with the comment "California Love" after his losses were widely reported—indicates that these liquidation events (despite the enormous absolute amounts) have not threatened his overall solvency.
More notably, Huang's strategic vision extends beyond trading existing assets to launching new capital generation mechanisms. In late 2024, he launched a new MACHI token project on the Blast blockchain, aiming to raise $5 million in liquidity through a "benchmark value event" and quickly attracted large investors with declared capital of up to $125 million.
This wealth循环 model—from traditional exit → early crypto projects → NFT mining → derivatives trading → new token issuance (MACHI)—reveals a continuous, aggressive model of capital extraction and redeployment. When one source of resources is locked up or depleted by high-risk positions, he immediately launches a new community-driven tokenized project to refresh his funding reserves.
04. Summary
Due to the complete publicity of his on-chain trading activities, Huang serves as an important but controversial market barometer. His trading规模 is large enough to trigger significant price movements and community discussions.
However, for ordinary investors, Huang's case is more of a warning than an example.
First, the risks of high-leverage trading are extreme. 25x leverage means the market only needs to fall 4% for your principal to go to zero. Even someone as well-capitalized as Huang has suffered tens of millions of dollars in losses in such trades.
Second, capital depth determines risk tolerance. Huang can immediately replenish margin after huge losses because he has diversified capital sources and deep liquidity reserves. Ordinary investors clearly do not have such conditions; one liquidation could be fatal.
Third, on-chain transparency is a double-edged sword. While transparency meets users' demands for data openness, the mechanical efficiency of the HyperBFT liquidation process eliminates the possibility of manual risk hedging during market shocks. The platform's efficiency itself becomes a structural risk amplifier for high-leverage traders.
Huang's continued reliance on extreme leverage and constant launching of new token projects预示 that his financial activities will continue to generate huge market volatility. His capital model demonstrates how traditional tech wealth can be efficiently combined with crypto-native wealth to support the most aggressive trading style in the crypto market.
But for every investor in this market, the more important question is:
Do you want to be the one creating liquidity, or the one providing liquidity?
In this market, surviving is always more important than getting rich quick.
