Maji Big Brother's Leverage Game: Where Does the "Never-ending" Money Come From?

Written by: Clow

Last night, the crypto market once again witnessed a thrilling series of liquidations.

Renowned investor Huang Licheng (known as "Machi Big Brother") had his long positions on the decentralized derivatives platform Hyperliquid liquidated consecutively as many as 10 times in a short period. His account balance plummeted from $1.3 million to just $53,178—less than 5% of the original amount.

This is the cruelest scene of high-leverage trading: in just a few hours, over $1.25 million vanished into thin air.

Ironically, just a few days ago, 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, in just a few days, 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 a "godlike operation." As early as October 10, 2024, he experienced an even more dramatic liquidation: a $79 million ETH long position was forcibly liquidated, and his account quickly flipped from a $44.5 million profit to a $10 million net loss, resulting in a total reversal of over $54.5 million.

But after each previous liquidation, he would immediately top up his margin and start the next round of high-stakes betting: on December 12, he deposited $199,800; on November 5, he deposited $275,000; and just a few days ago, he injected another $254,700...

Ironically, when the media widely reported his huge losses, Huang Licheng shared a poolside photo on Instagram with the caption: "California Love."

Last night's 10 consecutive liquidations brought his account balance down to rock bottom again—only $53,178. But based on his past behavior patterns, it is likely that it won't be long before he injects new funds and resumes high-leverage betting.

This raises a question everyone wants to know: after repeatedly suffering tens of millions of dollars in losses, how can he mechanically top up his margin again and again—where does his money come from?

01 The Crazy Leverage Game

To understand the source of Huang Licheng's funds, we must first recognize 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 speed." It sounds cool, but during periods of intense market volatility, this speed also brings structural risks: high-leverage positions can be liquidated quickly and mechanically, leaving traders "no chance to escape."

Huang Licheng is particularly fond of such extreme operations. On-chain data shows he frequently uses extreme leverage of 15x to 25x for ETH long positions. This level of leverage means that the market only needs to drop 4-6% for his margin to be completely wiped out. Last night's 10 consecutive liquidations were a true reflection of such extreme leverage during volatile market conditions.

Behind this crazy trading model lies a shocking fact: no matter how much he loses, he can immediately top up his margin and continue to gamble. From the $54.5 million reversal to last night's near-zero account balance, after each huge loss, he can inject hundreds of thousands of dollars in a short time, or even re-establish positions worth tens of millions of dollars.

This ability to immediately deploy new margin after suffering tens of millions in losses proves that these losses do not come from the depletion of his overall net assets, but are drawn from a specially allocated, highly liquid trading reserve.

So, how was this bottomless pool of funds built?

02 Where Does the Money Come From? Revealing the Three-Layer Capital Structure

First Layer: "Anchored Capital" from Traditional Tech

Huang Licheng's wealth foundation does not rely entirely on crypto assets. Before becoming the "God of Crypto Gambling," he was a successful tech entrepreneur.

In 2015, Huang Licheng co-founded 17 Media (later M17 Entertainment/17LIVE). The platform quickly grew into Asia's leading live entertainment platform. After a failed IPO in New York in 2018, it successfully listed in Singapore in 2023.

The most critical financial event occurred in November 2020. Huang Licheng announced his resignation from the 17LIVE board, during which 17LIVE repurchased his company shares.

This share buyback coincided with the onset of the 2021 crypto bull market, providing Huang Licheng with "anchored capital." This cash flow from a mature enterprise laid a solid financial foundation for his subsequent high-risk investments in the crypto market, ensuring he could withstand huge short-term losses in derivatives trading.

Second Layer: Controversial Early Crypto Projects

In addition to his success in traditional tech, Huang Licheng was also deeply involved in early crypto projects, though this history is full of controversy.

The most representative is the Mithril (MITH) project. Huang Licheng was the founder of this decentralized social media platform. However, the project was later described as "only a concept, with a rough 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 state that the token issuer "made a lot of money" in the early stages.

This reflects the typical chaos of the 2017-2018 initial digital asset issuance era: regardless of a project's long-term utility or viability, founders could obtain substantial capital through initial token generation events. Meanwhile, many retail investors suffered heavy losses after the projects collapsed.

Huang Licheng also co-founded the decentralized lending protocol Cream Finance (CREAM). The protocol experienced several major security incidents in 2021, including a $34 million exploit and a flash loan attack of up to $130 million.

It should be emphasized that the ultimate failure of these early projects caused significant losses for investors; this history is provided for background only.

Third Layer: Liquidity Extraction from the NFT Empire

Building on traditional capital and early crypto projects, Huang Licheng used NFT assets as a financial tool to continuously generate highly liquid crypto assets to replenish 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, the NFTs held in his machibigbrother.eth-linked Ethereum wallet were valued at over $9.5 million.

However, his NFT strategy goes far beyond simple collecting; it is an advanced financial strategy focused on liquidity generation:

• Large-scale sell-off events: In February 2023, he sold 1,010 NFTs within 48 hours, which was "one of the largest NFT sell-offs in history."

• ApeCoin cash-out: In August 2022, he sold 13 MAYC (worth about $350,000) in one week and transferred 1,496,600 ApeCoin to Binance

• Blur liquidity mining: He was a major 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

This high-frequency, large-scale selling and NFT lending activity aims to maximize airdrop rewards and convert high-value digital assets into highly liquid ETH or stablecoins, continuously supplying ammunition for his derivatives trading reserves.

It is worth noting that Huang Licheng also incurred costs during Blur NFT liquidity mining. In his attempt to mine tokens with Bored Ape NFTs, he realized a loss of about 2,400 ETH, worth approximately $4.2 million. However, this $4.2 million loss was likely offset by the huge gains he made from large Blur airdrops and other asset liquidations.

03 The Perpetual 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 massive capital structure:

• Traditional tech exit: Stable and large-scale fiat liquidity obtained by selling 17LIVE shares in 2020

• Early crypto native capital: Although the projects themselves were controversial, 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 available for margin through large-scale sell-offs, airdrop rewards, and NFT collateralized lending

Given the publicly confirmed main liquidation and profit/loss reversal totals (over $54.5 million), and his ability to inject hundreds of thousands of dollars in margin immediately after each liquidation, to sustain 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, with his account balance down to just $53,178, based on his past behavior, it is likely that new funds will soon be injected. Huang Licheng's calm attitude—sharing a poolside photo and captioning it "California Love" on Instagram after his losses were widely reported—shows that these liquidation events (despite their huge absolute amounts) have not threatened his overall solvency.

More noteworthy is that Huang Licheng's strategic vision is not limited to trading existing assets, but also includes launching new capital generation mechanisms. At the end of 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 cycle model—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 one liquidity resource is locked or depleted by high-risk positions, he immediately launches a new community-driven tokenization project to refresh his capital reserves.

04 Summary

Due to the complete transparency of his on-chain trading activities, Huang Licheng serves as an important but controversial market barometer. His trading scale is large enough to trigger significant price movements and community discussions.

However, for ordinary investors, Huang Licheng's case is more of a warning than a model to follow.

First, the risks of high-leverage trading are extreme. 25x leverage means the market only needs to drop 4% for your principal to be wiped out. Even someone as well-capitalized as Huang Licheng has suffered tens of millions of dollars in losses from such trades.

Second, capital depth determines risk tolerance. Huang Licheng can immediately top up his margin after huge losses because he has diversified capital sources and deep liquidity reserves. Ordinary investors clearly do not have such conditions; a single 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 HyperBFT's 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 Licheng's continued reliance on extreme leverage and constant launch of new token projects suggests that his financial activities will continue to generate significant market volatility. His capital model demonstrates how traditional tech 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 creating liquidity, or the one providing liquidity?

In this market, surviving is always more important than getting rich quick.