Machi: Oh no, I've been targeted again

Original｜Odaily（@OdailyChina）

Author｜Wenser（@wenser 2010）

If every trader kept a personal trading journal, Machi's recent entries might look something like this:

October 15, sunny. Position liquidated across the board once again, dropping from $12.25 million back down to $21,800.

Yes, as one of the well-known whales on Hyperliquid, recent market volatility has once again sent him back to "square one." Over the previous nearly 4 months, he had parlayed his $56,000 principal into over $12 million through his never-say-die spirit, but his preference for long positions has once again pushed him to the brink of liquidation. Looking back at his trades over the past few months, it reads like a diary titled "Reborn After Liquidation: I Go Long Again."

Machi's Trading Profile: Long-Biased, a Loyal "ETH Soldier," Never Gives Up

When people mention Machi (Huang Licheng), his extensive experience spanning multiple industry cycles—ICO, DeFi Summer, GameFi, NFT, SocialFi, Meme coin frenzies—has long earned him recognition as an industry OG. Many respectfully call him "Machi Big Brother." But since the emergence of Hyperliquid, his on-chain Perp DEX trading performance makes it hard to regard him as a crypto whale who trades calmly and adjusts positions flexibly.

According to incomplete statistics, from June to October alone, Machi experienced at least 4 major liquidations:

Early June, 7 liquidations in 2 days, yet he still insisted on a 25x long on 400 ETH;

June 18, as the market declined, Machi's position was liquidated, losing $320,000 in a single day;

July 31, the market dropped sharply again, Machi's position was liquidated 3 times, with account funds falling below $100,000;

October 8, Machi was once again on the verge of liquidation, cut losses on 4,700 ETH, realizing an actual loss of $570,000, while $4 million in unrealized gains turned into $3 million in unrealized losses.

Based on Machi's past trading history, we can roughly summarize the following 3 key characteristics.

Prefers Long Positions, Typically with 25x Leverage

Perhaps having profited over $22 million last July by going long on ETH, HYPE, and PUMP, Machi's primary trading style since then can be summed up in four words—"mindlessly go long." Although he occasionally opens short positions to hedge, most of the time he firmly holds his long positions, typically using 25x leverage, with some 5x leverage mixed in.

According to on-chain data, as of writing, Machi still holds a 25x leveraged long position of 6,100 ETH, with unrealized gains of approximately $260,000.

A Loyal "ETH Soldier," with ETH as His Primary Trading Target

From last July to now, despite opening contract positions in BTC, HYPE, PUMP, UNI, and even recently ENA, PONS, and other tokens, ETH remains the token Machi trades most frequently, with the largest positions and highest volume—bar none.

Last September, he opened a long on 30,000 ETH at $4,399, with a position value exceeding $120 million, at one point sitting on unrealized losses of nearly $10 million;

Last November and December, Machi transferred funds to Hyperliquid 6 times to add to his ETH long, but during the market decline on December 17, he still swung from profit to loss, with cumulative losses at that point already exceeding $23 million.

This February, Machi fought harder than ever. First, his January profits reached $3.5 million, with a win rate exceeding 84%; but soon after, as the market took a sharp turn, he suffered massive losses again within just 20 days—losses exceeding $27 million, with his Hyperliquid account balance dropping to around $90,000.

This highlights another strong trait of Machi—an ironclad gambling spirit.

Never Gives Up: Multiple Liquidations but Always Comes Back

Despite numerous near-liquidation events and even being liquidated by high-volatility markets, Machi has always persevered in continuously opening positions—a true "crypto Zeng Guofan."

On one hand, this is reflected in his relentless efforts to raise funds for the "Hyperliquid trading stage":

This February, when his Hyperliquid account position value dropped below $1 million, he even tapped funds he had deposited into the PleasrDAO treasury 5 years ago to add to his long positions.

In June, facing yet another long position liquidation, he sold 34 BAYC Bored Apes in a major sell-off, ultimately ending his "NFT mogul journey" with losses exceeding $6.3 million.

In July, he even launched a namesake Meme coin called Machi to raise trading funds, willing to gamble his industry reputation (though perhaps there wasn't much left to gamble);

At the end of August, he announced plans for a "$1 million CTO of Friend.tech", causing the FT token price to surge over 30x at one point, and he profited over a million dollars from it.

Many people marvel at how frequently Machi opens positions, joking about his "infinite ammunition," but few realize how hard he works to raise funds!

On the other hand, even as losses mount daily, he remains committed to opening positions and absolutely refuses to leave the table—trading from ETH above $4,000 all the way down to around $1,800 and back up to the current level around $2,400.

According to statistics from early June, his cumulative losses had already grown to approximately $80 million;

By the end of August, his account balance had achieved a 200x increase, with BTC and ETH long positions once again exceeding $100 million in value;

In early September, Machi parlayed his way from $150,000 to $11 million through leveraged longs; in late September, Machi's long positions had unrealized gains of $6.7 million, but after he called for "ETH to hit $3,000," ETH prices gradually weakened, and on October 8 he was forced to cut losses.

Machi's October Liquidation Diary: Frequent Endorsements of Papertrade, but Still Can't Hide the Liquidation Slide

As of writing, according to Hyperbot data, Machi's total Hyperliquid account P&L has dropped to a loss of nearly $34.8 million, having previously been up over $44 million in unrealized gains, with a maximum drawdown of 98.93%.

On the other side, Machi's personal account focus has been on endorsing the recently popular trading protocol Papertrade: he not only made bold claims like "Papertrade is the new Hyperliquid" but also stated "there's no reason to use any other Perp protocol." In his latest tweet, he even included a selfie, publicly endorsing Papertrade. One can only wonder whether such enthusiastic shilling comes from "a trader's keen instincts, a kindred spirit with Papertrade's founder," or some undisclosed "quid pro quo"?

Looking back at Machi's trading activity after October, we can only say: timing and fate.

On October 5, he was once up nearly $5.5 million; just a week later, his account balance had dropped to around $560,000, once again achieving the feat of "losing over $11.2 million in 7 days." By yesterday, his position was once again near zero—liquidated.

One can only say that on the path to becoming a gambler, Machi has been sprinting all along, and perhaps what he enjoys isn't really the profits or losses, but the vanity of being at the center of the crypto stage—"the focal point, the center of attention." After all, sometimes you have to give credit where it's due: from ICO to today's on-chain contract arena, Machi has always been on the field, never leaving the table.

Recommended Reading

Machi Big Brother's "Road to Zero"