Ma Ji's Leverage Game: Where Does the "Unending" Money Come From?
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Ma Ji's Leverage Game: Where Does the "Unending" Money Come From?
After repeatedly suffering losses of tens of millions of dollars, how does he keep mechanically replenishing his margin? Where does his money even come from?
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy: Clow
Last night, the crypto market witnessed another heart-pounding series of consecutive liquidations.
Noted investor Machi Big Brother (aka "Brother Ma") had his long positions on the decentralized derivatives platform Hyperliquid forcibly liquidated up to 10 times in rapid succession. His account balance plummeted from a previous $1.3 million to just $53,178—less than 5% of its original value.
This is the harshest face of high-leverage trading: over $1.25 million wiped out in just a few hours.
Ironically, only days earlier, he had deposited $254,700 worth of USDC into Hyperliquid, increasing his ETH long position to 11,100 ETH, with a total value exceeding $36 million. Yet within days, this newly injected capital, along with prior reserves, was crushed once again in the high-leverage meat grinder.
If this story ended here, it would simply be yet another tragic tale of a high-leverage gambler.
But this is far from his first such "legendary move." As early as October 10, 2024, he suffered an even more dramatic blowout: a $79 million long ETH position was forcibly liquidated, turning a $44.5 million profit into a $10 million net loss, resulting in a total unrealized loss reversal exceeding $54.5 million.
Yet after each past liquidation, he immediately replenished his margin and resumed another round of high-stakes betting: depositing $199,800 on December 12, $275,000 on November 5, and injecting another $254,700 just days ago...
Adding further irony, while media widely reported his massive losses, Machi shared a poolside photo on Instagram captioned: "California Love."
Last night’s 10 consecutive liquidations brought his account balance down to a mere $53,178. But based on his past behavior, it's highly likely that soon enough, he’ll inject fresh funds and restart another high-leverage gamble.
This raises a question everyone wants answered: After repeatedly suffering tens of millions in losses, how does he keep mechanically topping up his margin? Where is all this money coming from?
01 The Madness of Leverage
To understand Machi Big Brother’s funding sources, one must first grasp his trading style in the crypto markets—extreme aggression.
He primarily operates on the decentralized derivatives exchange Hyperliquid. This platform uses the HyperBFT high-performance consensus mechanism, enabling "millisecond-level matching speed." Sounds impressive, but during periods of extreme market volatility, this speed introduces structural risk: high-leverage positions can be rapidly and mechanically liquidated, leaving traders "no chance to escape."
Machi thrives precisely on these edge-of-the-cliff maneuvers. On-chain data shows he frequently employs extreme leverage of 15x to 25x on ETH longs. At such levels, a mere 4–6% market drop wipes out his entire margin. Last night’s sequence of 10 back-to-back liquidations is a real-time illustration of how extreme leverage behaves under volatile conditions.
Behind this reckless trading pattern lies a startling fact: no matter the scale of losses, he consistently replenishes his margin instantly and continues gambling. From the $54.5 million unrealized loss reversal to last night’s near-total account wipeout, every time he suffers massive losses, he quickly deposits hundreds of thousands—or rebuilds multi-million-dollar positions—within days.
This ability to deploy new margin immediately after tens of millions in losses suggests these losses are not drawn from the depletion of his total net worth, but rather from a dedicated, highly liquid trading reserve.
So how exactly was this seemingly bottomless capital pool built?
02 Where Does the Money Come From? Revealing the Three-Tier Capital Structure
First Tier: “Anchored Capital” from Traditional Tech
Machi’s wealth foundation isn’t solely tied to crypto assets. Before becoming the “gambling deity of the crypto world,” he was a successful tech entrepreneur.
In 2015, Machi co-founded 17 Media (later M17 Entertainment / 17LIVE). The platform rapidly grew into Asia’s leading live-streaming entertainment service, eventually listing successfully in Singapore in 2023 after failing to IPO in New York in 2018.
The key financial event occurred in November 2020, when Machi announced his resignation from the 17LIVE board. During this transition, 17LIVE repurchased his company shares.
This share buyback happened just before the 2021 crypto bull run, providing Machi with “anchored capital.” The cash liquidity from this mature enterprise laid a solid financial foundation for his subsequent high-risk investments in crypto, ensuring he could absorb significant short-term losses in derivative trades.
Second Tier: Controversial Past Involvement in Early Crypto Projects
Beyond traditional tech success, Machi was deeply involved in early crypto projects—an era marked by controversy.
The most notable is the Mithril (MITH) project. Machi founded this decentralized social media platform. However, it was later criticized as “all concept, poorly executed, and lacking real users.” Although the MITH token crashed over 99% after market cooling and was delisted in 2022, public reports clearly state that the issuing party “made a fortune” during the initial phase.
This reflects the typical chaos of the 2017–2018 ICO era: regardless of a project’s long-term utility or survival, founders could extract substantial capital through initial token offerings, while retail investors bore devastating losses when projects collapsed.
Machi also co-founded the decentralized lending protocol Cream Finance (CREAM). The protocol suffered multiple major security incidents in 2021, including a $34 million exploit and a flash loan attack costing up to $130 million.
It should be emphasized that the ultimate failure of these early projects caused significant losses to investors. This history is presented solely for context and does not constitute investment advice for similar projects.
Third Tier: Liquidity Extraction from the NFT Empire
Beyond traditional capital and early crypto ventures, Machi has leveraged NFT assets as financial instruments to continuously generate highly liquid crypto assets, replenishing his trading war chest.
Machi is a well-known collector of top-tier NFT collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). As of June 2023, the NFTs held in his Ethereum wallet linked to machibigbrother.eth were valued at over $9.5 million.
However, his NFT strategy goes far beyond simple collecting—it’s an advanced financial tactic focused on liquidity generation:
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Massive sell-off events: In February 2023, he sold 1,010 NFTs within 48 hours—one of the “largest NFT sell-offs in history”
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ApeCoin monetization: In August 2022, he sold 13 MAYC tokens (worth ~$350,000) within a week and transferred 1.4966 million ApeCoins to Binance
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Blur liquidity mining: He was a major recipient of Blur token airdrops and actively used the Blur Blend platform for NFT collateralized loans, once being the platform’s largest lender, providing 58 loans totaling 1,180 ETH
This high-frequency combination of large-scale selling and NFT-backed borrowing aims to maximize airdrop rewards and convert high-value digital assets into highly liquid ETH or stablecoins, continuously supplying ammunition for his derivatives trading.
Notably, Machi incurred costs during his BlurNFT liquidity mining activities. He realized approximately 2,400 ETH (~$4.2 million) in losses while attempting to mine tokens via Bored Ape NFTs. However, these $4.2 million in losses were likely offset by massive gains from large-scale Blur airdrops and other asset liquidations.
03 The Perpetual Capital Machine
Thus, Machi’s ability to absorb tens of millions in liquidation losses and immediately reopen aggressive positions stems from a diversified and extensive capital structure:
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Traditional tech exit: Stable and large-scale fiat liquidity obtained in 2020 from selling shares in 17LIVE
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Early crypto-native capital: Despite controversies, early token launches did accumulate crypto-native capital
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NFT high-speed liquidity generation: Strategically converting high-value blue-chip NFT assets into ETH or stablecoins—usable as margin—through mass sales, airdrop farming, and NFT-collateralized lending
Given publicly confirmed major liquidations and unrealized loss reversals totaling over $54.5 million, plus his repeated ability to inject hundreds of thousands post-liquidation, maintaining such a high-risk trading style likely requires an uncommitted liquid reserve conservatively estimated at over $100 million.
Even after last night’s 10 consecutive liquidations left his balance at just $53,178, based on his historical patterns, fresh funds will likely arrive soon. Machi’s calm Instagram post-liquidation poolside photo with the message “California Love” indicates these events—despite their massive absolute value—do not threaten his overall solvency.
More importantly, Machi’s strategic vision extends beyond trading existing assets—he actively launches new capital-generating mechanisms. By the end of 2024, he launched a new MACHI token project on the Blast blockchain, aiming to raise $5 million in liquidity through “benchmark value events,” quickly attracting major investors with declared capital commitments totaling $125 million.
This wealth cycle—from traditional exit → early crypto projects → NFT yield farming → derivatives trading → new token issuance (MACHI)—reveals a continuous, aggressive model of capital extraction and redeployment. When one source of liquidity is locked or depleted by high-risk positions, he immediately launches a new community-driven tokenized project to refresh his capital reserves.
04 Summary
Due to the full transparency of his on-chain trading activity, Machi serves as a significant yet controversial market barometer. His trade sizes are large enough to trigger noticeable price movements and spark widespread community discussion.
However, for ordinary investors, Machi’s case is more of a cautionary tale than a role model.
First, the risks of high-leverage trading are extreme. 25x leverage means a mere 4% market drop wipes out your entire principal. Even someone as well-capitalized as Machi has suffered tens of millions in losses through such trades.
Second, capital depth determines risk tolerance. Machi can immediately replenish margin after massive losses because he has diversified capital sources and deep liquidity reserves. Most retail investors lack these resources—just one liquidation could be fatal.
Third, on-chain transparency is a double-edged sword. While transparency meets user demand for open data, the mechanical efficiency of HyperBFT liquidations eliminates the possibility of manual risk hedging during market shocks. Platform efficiency itself becomes a structural risk amplifier for high-leverage traders.
Machi’s continued reliance on extreme leverage and constant launch of new token projects signals that his financial activities will keep generating significant market volatility. His capital model demonstrates how traditional tech wealth can efficiently combine with crypto-native wealth to sustain the most aggressive trading styles in the crypto market.
But for every investor caught in this game, the more important question is:
Do you want to be the one creating liquidity, or the one providing it?
In this market, staying alive is always more important than getting rich fast.
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