Author: Clow
Last night, the crypto market once again witnessed a heart-stopping series of liquidations.
Well-known investor Jeffrey Huang (aka "Machi Big Brother") saw his long positions liquidated consecutively up to 10 times in a short period on the decentralized derivatives platform Hyperliquid. His account balance plummeted from a previous $1.3 million to just $53,178—less than 5% of the original amount.
This is the cruelest scene of high-leverage trading: over $1.25 million evaporated into thin air within hours.
More ironically, just a few days prior, 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.
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 $44.5 million profit to a net loss of $10 million, resulting in a profit-and-loss swing of over $54.5 million.
But 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 posted a poolside photo on Instagram with the caption: "California Love."
Last night's 10 consecutive liquidations sent his account balance to rock bottom again—a mere $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 Huang's funding sources, one must first see his trading style in the crypto market—extremely aggressive.
He is primarily 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 introduces 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 swing, to his account balance nearly zeroing out last night, after each huge loss, he has been able to inject hundreds of thousands of dollars within a short time, even re-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 worth, 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 "Crypto Gambling God," 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 attempt in 2018, it successfully listed in Singapore in 2023.
The key 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 eve of the 2021 crypto bull market爆发, provided Huang with "anchor capital." This cash liquidity from a mature enterprise 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 fraught with controversy.
The most representative is the Mithril (MITH) project. Huang was the founder of this decentralized social media platform. However, the project was later评价 as "all concept,粗糙 product 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 project's early stages.
This reflects the typical chaos of the 2017-2018 ICO era: regardless of a project's long-term utility or sustainability, founders could obtain substantial capital through the initial token generation event. Meanwhile,大量 retail investors suffered heavy losses after the projects collapsed.
Huang was also involved in founding the decentralized lending protocol Cream Finance (CREAM). The protocol experienced multiple major security incidents in 2021, including a $34 million exploit and a massive $130 million flash loan attack.
It must be emphasized that the ultimate failure of these early projects caused significant losses for 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 replenish 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 Sell-Offs: 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 ~$350k) in 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 for his derivatives trading reserve.
It's worth mentioning that while conducting Blur NFT liquidity mining activities, Huang also incurred costs. He realized losses of approximately 2,400 ETH (worth ~$4.2 million at the time) while trying to farm tokens using 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 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 2020 sale of 17LIVE shares
-
Early Crypto-Native Capital: Although the projects themselves were controversial, the early token issuances did accumulate crypto-native capital
-
High-Speed NFT Liquidity Generation: Strategically converting high-value blue-chip NFT assets through large-scale sales, airdrop reward acquisition, and NFT collateralized lending into ETH or stablecoins usable for margin
Given the publicly confirmed total liquidations and profit-and-loss swings (over $54.5 million), and his ability to immediately inject hundreds of thousands 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, new funds will likely be injected soon. Huang's calm attitude—posting a pool photo captioned "California Love" after the losses were widely reported—indicates that these liquidation events (despite their enormous absolute size) 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 the 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 stated 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 liquidity is locked up or depleted by high-risk positions, he immediately initiates a new community-driven tokenized project to refresh his capital reserves.
04 Summary
Due to the complete publicity of his on-chain trading activities, Huang serves as an important yet controversial market barometer. His trading规模 is large enough to trigger significant price movements and community discussion.
However, for the average investor, 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 in losses with this kind of trading.
Second, capital depth determines risk tolerance. Huang can immediately replenish margin after huge losses because he has diversified funding 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, survival is always more important than getting rich quick.
