Big Brother Ma Ji's leverage game: Where does the "endless" money come from?

Author: Clow

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

Renowned investor Huang Licheng (known as “Brother Maji”) experienced up to 10 consecutive forced liquidations on the decentralized derivatives platform Hyperliquid within a short period. His account balance plummeted from the 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 in funds vanished within a few hours.

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, worth over $36 million. Yet, in just a few days, this newly added capital, along with previous reserves, was crushed again in the high-leverage meat grinder amid market volatility.

If the story ended here, it would be just another tragic ending for a high-leverage gambler.

This is not his first time performing such “miracle operations.” As early as October 10, 2024, he experienced an even more dramatic liquidation: a $79 million ETH long position was forcibly liquidated, turning his account from a profit of $44.5 million into a net loss of $10 million, resulting in a total profit and loss reversal of over $54.5 million.

But after each previous liquidation, he would immediately add margin and continue his high-stakes gamble: depositing $19,980 on December 12, $27,500 on November 5, and another $25,470 just a few days ago…

Even more ironic, when the media widely reported his huge losses, Huang Licheng shared a photo of a swimming pool on Instagram with the caption: “California Love.”

The 10 consecutive liquidations last night caused his account balance to drop again to a low—only $53,178. But based on his past behavior patterns, it’s very likely that he will soon inject new funds and restart his high-leverage gambling.

This raises a question everyone wants to know the answer to: After repeatedly suffering losses of tens of millions of dollars, how can he keep mechanically adding margin? Where does his money come from?

The Crazy Leverage Game

To understand Huang Licheng’s source of funds, first, we need to see his trading style in the crypto market—extremely aggressive.

He mainly operates on the decentralized derivatives exchange Hyperliquid. This platform uses the HyperBFT high-performance consensus mechanism, capable of “millisecond-level matching speed.” Sounds impressive, but during intense market volatility, this speed also introduces structural risks: high-leverage positions can be liquidated rapidly and mechanically, leaving traders “no escape.”

Huang Licheng is particularly fond of this extreme approach. On-chain data shows he frequently uses 15x to 25x leverage for ETH long positions. Such leverage means that a mere 4-6% market decline can wipe out his margin entirely. The 10 consecutive liquidations last night vividly reflect this reality during market turbulence.

Behind this疯狂交易模式 is a shocking fact: no matter how much he loses, he can immediately add margin and continue to gamble big. From a profit and loss reversal of over $54.5 million to nearly zero account balance last night, he can inject tens of thousands of dollars in a short time, even rebuild positions worth tens of millions of dollars.

This ability to deploy new margin immediately after suffering losses of tens of millions of dollars indicates that these losses are not from depleting his overall net worth but are drawn from specially allocated, highly liquid trading reserves.

So, what is this bottomless capital pool, and how is it built?

Where Does the Money Come From? A Three-Layer Capital Structure Revealed

First Layer: “Anchored Capital” from Traditional Tech

Huang Licheng’s wealth is not entirely dependent on crypto assets. Before becoming a “crypto gambling king,” he was a successful tech entrepreneur.

In 2015, Huang co-founded 17 Media (later M17 Entertainment / 17LIVE). This platform quickly grew into Asia’s leading live streaming 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 announced his resignation from the 17LIVE board, during which 17LIVE repurchased shares he held.

This share buyback happened just before the 2021 crypto bull market explosion, providing Huang with “anchored capital.” The cash flow from this mature enterprise provided a solid financial foundation for his subsequent high-risk investments in crypto, enabling him to withstand significant short-term losses in derivatives trading.

Second Layer: Controversial Early Crypto Projects

Beyond success in traditional tech, Huang has also been deeply involved in early crypto projects, though this history is filled with controversy.

The most representative is Mithril(MITH). Huang was the founder of this decentralized social media platform. However, the project was later criticized as “only a concept, with rough products and no real users.” Despite the MITH token price crashing over 99% after the market cooled, the project was delisted in 2022. Public reports clearly state that the token issuer made a “big profit” during the initial coin offering (ICO).

This reflects the typical chaos of the 2017-2018 ICO era: regardless of the project’s long-term utility or viability, founders could extract substantial capital through initial token generation events. Meanwhile, many retail investors suffered heavy losses when the projects collapsed.

Huang also participated in founding the decentralized lending protocol Cream Finance(CREAM). This protocol experienced multiple major security incidents in 2021, including a $34 million vulnerability exploit and a $130 million flash loan attack.

It’s important to emphasize that these early projects’ failures caused significant losses for investors. This background is provided for context only and does not constitute investment advice on any similar projects.

Third Layer: Liquidity Extraction from the NFT Empire

Building on traditional capital and early crypto projects, Huang leverages NFT assets as financial tools, continuously generating highly liquid crypto assets to supplement his trading reserves.

Huang is a prominent collector of top NFT series like Bored Ape Yacht Club(BAYC). As of June 2023, he held NFTs worth over $9.5 million in an Ethereum wallet associated with machibigbrother.eth.

However, his NFT strategy goes far beyond simple collecting; it’s an advanced financial approach 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 monetization: In August 2022, he sold 13 MAYC NFTs (worth about $350,000) within a week and transferred 1.4966 million ApeCoins to Binance.

Blur liquidity mining: He was a major recipient of Blur token airdrops and actively used the Blur Blend platform for NFT collateralized loans, being the largest lender on the platform with 58 loans totaling 1,180 ETH.

This high-frequency, large-scale sell-off and NFT lending activity aim to maximize airdrop rewards and convert high-value digital assets into highly liquid ETH or stablecoins, continuously fueling his derivatives trading reserves.

It’s worth noting that during Blur NFT liquidity mining, Huang also incurred costs. 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 huge gains from large Blur airdrops and other asset liquidations.

Perpetual Capital Machine

Therefore, Huang’s ability to absorb tens of millions of dollars in liquidations and immediately reopen aggressive positions stems from a diversified and massive capital structure:

Traditional tech exit: The stable, large-scale fiat liquidity obtained from selling his 17LIVE shares in 2020.

Early crypto-native capital: Despite controversies, early token issuances accumulated genuine crypto-native capital.

NFT high-liquidity generation: Strategically converting high-value blue-chip NFTs through large sales, airdrops, and NFT collateralized loans into ETH or stablecoins for margin.

Given the publicly confirmed total liquidation and profit/loss reversal exceeding $54.5 million, and his repeated ability to inject tens of thousands of dollars after liquidations, maintaining such a high-risk trading style likely requires a conservative estimate of over $100 million in unallocated liquid reserves.

Even after experiencing 10 consecutive liquidations last night with only $53,178 remaining, based on his past behavior, it’s very likely new funds will soon be injected again. His calm attitude—sharing a poolside photo with the caption “California Love” after widespread reports of losses—indicates these liquidation events, despite their enormous absolute amounts, do not threaten his overall solvency.

More importantly, Huang’s strategic vision extends beyond current assets to initiating new capital generation mechanisms. By the end of 2024, he launched a new MACHI token project on the Blast blockchain, aiming to raise $5 million through a “benchmark value event,” which quickly attracted large investors with declared capital of up to $125 million.

This wealth cycle—traditional exit → early crypto projects → NFT mining → derivatives trading → new token issuance (MACHI)—reveals a continuous, aggressive capital extraction and redeployment model. When liquidity is locked or exhausted in high-risk positions, he immediately launches a new community-driven token project to refresh his funding reserves.

Summary

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

However, for ordinary investors, Huang’s case is more of a warning than a model.

First, the risks of high-leverage trading are extreme. 25x leverage means a mere 4% market decline can wipe out your principal. Even a wealthy trader like Huang has suffered losses of tens of millions of dollars in such trades.

Second, capital depth determines risk tolerance. Huang can immediately add margin after big losses because he has diversified capital sources and deep liquidity reserves. Ordinary investors lack such conditions; a single liquidation could be fatal.

Third, on-chain transparency is a double-edged sword. While transparency satisfies the demand for data openness, the mechanical efficiency of HyperBFT liquidations eliminates manual risk hedging during market shocks. The platform’s efficiency itself amplifies the structural risks faced by high-leverage traders.

Huang’s continued reliance on extreme leverage and ongoing new token projects suggest his financial activities will continue to generate significant market volatility. His capital model demonstrates how traditional tech wealth can be combined efficiently with crypto-native wealth to support the most aggressive trading styles in crypto markets.

But for every investor involved, a more important question is:

Are you aiming to be the one providing liquidity, or the one creating liquidity?

In this market, survival is always more important than getting rich quickly.