Blockchain data shows that Machi Big Brother turned $152,000 into $12.72 million in just 3 days on Hyperliquid. The new cryptocurrency market surge has once again drawn attention to the leveraged perpetual vouchers offered by this exchange.
Hyperliquid already controls a huge share of trading leverage. The trading volume of perpetual futures is $12.19 billion. That's nearly 30% of the trading volume across all decentralized exchanges that day, which was $40.79 billion.
In other words, when a trader managing Machi's account reports a $12 million profit, the focus is not solely on this one wallet. Rather, it's on what level of risk traders are willing to tolerate and where that risk lies.
The Bet: Approximately $103 Million in Long Positions vs. $12.9 Million
Data from HypurrScan reveals the numbers behind this news. Machi's portfolio value was about $12.9 million, almost entirely consisting of $USDC, but the open trades were worth approximately $103 million, of which $52.4 million was in Bitcoin, $44.9 million in Ether, and $6.1 million in Hyperliquid's HYPE tokens as long positions. The account was entirely in long positions with a margin collateralization of 14.41%.
Ether also contributed to the growth. The price of $ETH jumped nearly 30% over the past 7 days, and the 24-hour open interest in futures reached $33.18 billion. With that level of risk, a confident move in the right direction can quickly lead to eight-figure profits.
The danger is that leverage works just as fast in the opposite direction. Galaxy Research staff member Zach Pokorny warned about this in a report on August 17:
"It's important to note that the total amount of open futures positions does not represent the absolute volume of leverage."
Nearly 500 Liquidations and Discounted Bored Ape Sales
The latest surge in Machi's activity comes against a backdrop of a long history of liquidations. According to Lookonchain, the trader has faced liquidation nearly 500 times. In June, his account was liquidated seven times within ten hours during repeated attempts to open long positions on $ETH.
Machi (@machibigbrother), who has had his positions liquidated nearly 500 times, turned just $152,000 into $12.72 million in 3 days, making a profit of over $12.5 million!
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) August 22, 2026
It seems he no longer needs to sell his Bored Apes to keep holding long positions.https://t.co/mQLVsDGoSP pic.twitter.com/EpJXACA9GV
A price drop in $ETH and PUMP led to Machi's positions being worth $21.77 million in September 2025, forcing him to top up his account with $4.72 million in $USDC to prevent liquidation, as reported by Cryptopolitan on June 30. Arkham data showed that since September 2025, he had lost a total of $80.43 million, including five liquidations in one day in January. To fund trades, Machi sold several $NFTs from his Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, which previously numbered 182 $NFTs.
According to a comment on this week's trend reversal, Machi "no longer needs to sell his Bored Apes to maintain his long positions." Machi himself described his strategy in four words on August 20: "I open long positions."
Why Liquidation Settlements Forgive No Mistakes
Hyperliquid's liquidation process demonstrates how and why fate can change so quickly. According to the company's documentation, liquidation begins as soon as the account's equity falls below the maintenance margin, which is 50% of the initial margin required at maximum leverage usage.
Maximum leverage can range from 3x to 40x. The position maintenance level is set between 1.25% and 16.7% of the position's value depending on the instrument.
Regarding position closure, all orders are executed as market orders. For positions exceeding 100,000 $USDC, liquidation occurs in 20% increments, with a 30-second pause between each step.
This makes the process transparent, but unforgiving. With long positions worth roughly $103 million, even a relatively small adverse move can trigger a cascade of liquidations. That's why a trader whose positions have been liquidated hundreds of times can, just a few days later, be sitting on a profit of over $12 million.
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