jakiro
Author: Clow
Last night, the crypto market once again witnessed a thrilling series of liquidations.
Well-known investor Huang Licheng (known as “Big Brother Maji”) had his long orders liquidated as many as 10 times in a short period of time on the decentralized derivatives platform Hyperliquid.His account balance shrank sharply from the previous $1.3 million to only $53,178—less than 5% of the original amount.
This is the most cruel scene of high leverage trading:Within a few hours, more than $1.25 million in funds was gone.
What’s even more ironic is that just a few days ago, he injected $254,700 USDC into Hyperliquid, increasing his ETH long position to 11,100 ETH, with a total value of more than $36 million.However, just a few days later, this newly injected capital, together with the previous reserves, was crushed again in the high-leverage meat grinder.
If the story ended there, it would be just another tragic ending for a high-leverage gambler.
This is not the first time he has performed such a “magic operation”.As early as October 10, 2024, he experienced a more dramatic liquidation:A US$79 million ETH long position was forced to be liquidated, and the account quickly reversed from a profit of US$44.5 million to a net loss of US$10 million, resulting in a total profit and loss reversal of more than US$54.5 million.
But after each previous liquidation, he would immediately replenish the margin and continue to start the next round of gambling: depositing US$199,800 on December 12, US$275,000 on November 5, and another US$254,700 a few days ago…
Even more ironically, when his huge losses were widely reported in the media, Huang shared a pool photo on Instagram with the caption: “California Love“.
Last night’s 10 consecutive liquidations caused his account balance to hit rock bottom again – only $53,178 left.But based on his past behavior patterns, it is likely that it will not be long before he injects new funds and restarts high-leverage gambling.
This raises a question that everyone wants to know the answer to:After repeatedly suffering losses of tens of millions of dollars, he could still mechanically replenish his margin again and again. Where did his money come from?
Crazy leverage game
To understand Huang Licheng’s source of funds, we must first see clearly his trading style in the encryption market——Extremely radical.
He is mainly active on the decentralized derivatives exchange Hyperliquid.This platform uses HyperBFT high-performance consensus mechanism to achieve “millisecond-level matching speed.”Sounds cool, but that speed also brings structural risks when markets move wildly:Highly leveraged positions can be liquidated quickly and mechanically, leaving traders with “no chance of escape.”
Huang Licheng just loves this kind of extreme operation.On-chain data shows that he frequently uses extreme leverage of 15x to 25x for long ETH operations.This leverage means that the market only needs to fall 4-6% for his margin to be wiped out.The 10 consecutive liquidations last night are a true reflection of this extreme leverage when the market fluctuates violently.
Behind this crazy trading model is a shocking fact:No matter how much he loses, he can immediately replenish his margin and continue gambling..From the profit and loss reversal of US$54.5 million to the almost zero account balance last night, after every huge loss, he was able to inject hundreds of thousands of US dollars in a short period of time, and even re-establish positions worth tens of millions of US dollars.
This ability to immediately deploy new margin after suffering tens of millions of dollars in losses proves that these losses did not stem from the depletion of its overall net assets, but were drawn from specially allocated, highly liquid trading reserves.
Then,How was this bottomless capital pool established?
Where does the money come from?Three-tier capital structure revealed
The first level: “anchor capital” of traditional technology
The foundation of Huang Licheng’s wealth is not entirely dependent on crypto assets.Before becoming the “god of gambling in the currency circle”, he was a successful technology entrepreneur.
In 2015, Huang Licheng co-founded 17 Media (later M17 Entertainment/17LIVE).This platform has quickly grown into Asia’s leading live streaming entertainment platform,After the failure of the New York IPO in 2018, it was successfully listed in Singapore in 2023.
The most critical financial event occurred in November 2020.Huang Licheng announced his resignation from the 17LIVE board of directors. In the process, 17LIVE repurchased the company shares he held.
This equity repurchase event coincides with the outbreak of the crypto asset bull market in 2021, providing Huang Licheng 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.,Enough to ensure that he can withstand huge short-term losses in subsequent derivatives transactions.
The second layer: the controversial past of early encryption projects
In addition to his success in the traditional technology field, Huang Licheng has also been deeply involved in early encryption projects, but this history is full of controversy.
The most representative one is the Mithril (MITH) project.Huang Licheng is the founder of this decentralized social media platform.However, the project was later evaluated as “only a concept, the product was rough and there were no real users.”Although the MITH token price plummeted by more than 99% after the market cooled down, 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 long-term utility or viability of the project, founders are able to access substantial capital through an initial token generation event.A large number of retail investors suffered heavy losses after the project collapsed.
Huang Licheng also co-founded the decentralized lending agreement Cream Finance (CREAM).The protocol has experienced multiple major security incidents in 2021, including a $34 million vulnerability attack and a $130 million flash loan attack.
It should be emphasized that the ultimate failure of these early projects caused huge losses to investors. This history is only used as a background explanation and does not constitute investment advice for any similar projects.
The third layer: Liquidity extraction of NFT empire
Based on traditional capital and early crypto projects, Huang Licheng uses NFT assets as a financial tool to continuously generate highly liquid crypto assets to supplement his trading reserves.
Huang Licheng is a well-known collector of top NFT series such as Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).As of June 2023,He holds more than $9.5 million worth of NFTs in his Ethereum wallet linked to machibigbrother.eth.
However, his NFT strategy goes far beyond simple collections and is an advanced financial strategy focused on liquidity generation:
massive selling event:In February 2023, he sold 1,010 NFTs in 48 hours, which was “one of the largest NFT sell-offs in history.”
ApeCoin monetization:In August 2022, he sold 13 MAYC (worth approximately $350,000) and transferred 1.4966 million ApeCoin to Binance in one week
Blur Liquidity Mining:He was a huge recipient of the Blur token airdrop and actively used the Blur Blend platform for NFT mortgage lending. He was once the largest lender on the platform, providing 58 loans totaling 1180 ETH
The purpose of this high-frequency large-scale selling and NFT lending activities is to maximize airdrop rewards and convert high-value digital assets into highly liquid ETH or stablecoins, thereby continuing to provide ammunition for his derivatives trading reserves.
It is worth mentioning that Huang Licheng also borne the cost when conducting BlurNFT liquidity mining activities.In his attempt to mine tokens through the Bored Ape NFT, he incurred a realized loss of approximately 2,400 ETH, worth approximately $4.2 million.But this $4.2 million loss is likely to be offset by the huge gains he made through the massive Blur airdrop and other asset liquidations.
The ever-moving capital machine
Therefore, Huang Licheng’s ability to continuously absorb tens of millions of dollars in liquidation losses and immediately reopen aggressive positions comes from a diversified and large capital structure:
Traditional technology exits:Stable and massive fiat liquidity in 2020 through the sale of 17LIVE shares
Early crypto native capital:While the project itself was fraught with controversy, early token offerings did accumulate crypto-native capital
NFT high-speed liquidity generation:Strategically convert high-value blue-chip NFT assets into ETH or stablecoins that can be used for margin through large-scale sales, airdrop reward acquisition, and NFT mortgage lending.
Given the publicly confirmed total of major liquidations and profit and loss reversals (over $54.5 million), and his ability to repeatedly inject hundreds of thousands of dollars in margin immediately after liquidation, to maintain such a high-risk trading style, the size of the unallocated liquid reserves should be conservatively estimated at more than $100 million.
Even after experiencing 10 consecutive liquidations last night and leaving only $53,178 in the account balance, based on his past behavior patterns, it is likely that new funds will be injected soon.Wong’s calm attitude in sharing pool photos and leaving the message “California Love” on Instagram after his losses were widely reported suggests that these liquidations (despite their sheer size) do not threaten his overall solvency.
What is more worthy of attention is thatHuang Licheng’s strategic vision is not limited to the trading of existing assets, but also includes the initiation of 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 “base value event” and quickly attracted large investors with declared capital of up to $125 million.
This wealth cycle pattern from traditional exit→early crypto projects→NFT mining→derivatives trading→new token issuance (MACHI) reveals a continuous and aggressive capital extraction and redeployment model.When a liquidity resource is locked up or depleted by a high-risk position, it immediately launches a new community-driven tokenization project to refresh its capital reserves.
Summary
Due to the complete publicity of his on-chain trading activities, Huang has assumed an important but controversial role as a market barometer.His trades were large enough to spark significant price movement and community discussion.
However, for ordinary investors, Huang Licheng’s case is more of a warning than an example.
First, the risks of high-leverage trading are extreme.25 times leverage means that the market only needs to fall by 4% for your principal to return to zero.Even Huang Licheng, who was well-capitalized, suffered tens of millions of dollars in losses in this kind of trading.
Secondly, capital depth determines risk tolerance.Huang Licheng was able to replenish his margin immediately after a huge loss because he had diversified capital sources and deep liquidity reserves.Ordinary investors obviously do not have such conditions, and a liquidation may be fatal.
Third, on-chain transparency is a double-edged sword.While transparency meets user demands for data openness, the mechanical efficiency of HyperBFT’s clearing process eliminates the possibility of manual risk hedging during market shocks.The efficiency of the platform itself becomes a structural risk amplifier for highly leveraged traders.
Huang Licheng’s continued reliance on extreme leverage and continuous launch of new token projects indicates that his financial activities will continue to generate huge market volatility.Its capital model proves how traditional technology wealth can be efficiently combined with crypto-native wealth to support the most aggressive trading styles in the crypto market.
But for every investor involved, the more important question is:
Do you want to be the one who creates liquidity, or the one who provides liquidity?
In this market,Survival is always more important than getting rich suddenly.
