Machi Big Brother is back at the center of on-chain attention after using a high-leverage rolling strategy on Hyperliquid to turn $150,000 in starting capital into a $12.72 million long position in three days, a trade that produced about $12.5 million in profit.
The source report, written by angelilu for Foresight News and republished by Odaily, says Machi had lost $35 million on cumulative ETH longs over the past 10 months, based on data cited from analyst Ember. After the latest gain, that cumulative loss narrowed to about $24 million. As of 18:00 on Aug. 24, the machibigbrother.eth account on Hyperliquid held total assets of $10.07 million while carrying long exposure of about $124 million.
Roughly $10 million in assets is supporting a $123.72 million book
According to HypurrScan data cited in the report, with the snapshot taken at 18:00 on Aug. 24, 2026, the account held four positions with a combined notional value of $123.72 million. At then-current prices, the portfolio showed floating profit of about $1.435 million.
That profit was not evenly distributed. The HYPE, BTC and PUMP positions had already fallen below break-even, while ETH was still 2.9% above its break-even level. In practice, the report says the account’s profit was being carried by the ETH leg alone, which was showing floating profit of about $2.36 million. The other three positions were together sitting on about $920,000 in floating losses.
To keep the four longs open, Machi had already paid about $256,000 in funding, the report says. For perpetual futures, that is the ongoing cost of holding the position, and the bill rises the longer the trade stays open.
The most sensitive figure is the liquidation level. Once price hits that threshold, the system can close the position automatically. Among the four trades, ETH was the closest to liquidation at $2,229, about 10% below the market price referenced in the report. ETH also accounted for 59% of total exposure, making it the critical risk line for the whole account.
The report calculates that $9.44 million in capital was supporting $123.72 million in positions, putting effective leverage at about 13.1x. Under that setup, if ETH falls from $2,463 to $2,229, a drop of $234, the $12.5 million gained over the prior three days could be wiped out together with the existing capital base.
The strategy has not changed, and neither has the risk
The latest gain came from what the report describes as a rolling position strategy. Instead of withdrawing unrealized gains, the trader lets those gains count as additional margin, which supports a larger position. If price keeps moving in the same direction, the position expands again, creating a compounding effect.
The math cuts both ways. Returns can accelerate quickly in a one-way rally, but losses can hit all at once when the market turns. Each added layer of exposure depends on earlier paper profit, so a reversal does not just erase the original stake. It also wipes out the gains that were rolled back into the position. The report frames it this way: taking $150,000 to $11.15 million requires getting several consecutive calls right, while falling from $11.15 million back to $150,000 can, in theory, take only one reversal.
Last week’s rebound in ETH offered the ideal market structure for this approach: a directional move, continuity, and little pullback. That gave Machi room to keep increasing exposure.
But the report stresses that this is not the first time his account has shown a large paper gain. It points to several past episodes in which big profits quickly gave way to deep losses. In mid-September 2025, the account reportedly approached $60 million at its peak, with floating profit above $44 million to $45 million. Then, during the market plunge on Oct. 11, long positions including XPL and ETH were liquidated, and the account swung from about $15 million in profit to a loss of more than $11 million.
The report describes Machi’s trading style as heavily long-biased and highly leveraged, often in the 25x to 40x range, with a high win rate but poor risk-reward characteristics. It also says he tends to add margin or add to positions during drawdowns instead of cutting losses, a pattern that can produce many small wins and large losses, along with frequent liquidations.
In November 2025, Lookonchain tracked 71 forced liquidations for Machi on Hyperliquid in a single month, the highest count across the network, according to the report. Even after the latest run, the historical PnL remains deeply negative, and the trading discipline issues highlighted in the article have not materially changed.
Two weeks of selling BAYC to add margin
Before this latest leveraged surge, Machi had been selling Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs one by one.
On Aug. 5, he sold BAYC #5670 for 9 ETH. The report says he had bought it more than three years earlier for 84.99 ETH, a loss of 89.4%.
On Aug. 13, he sold BAYC #5715 for 8.3 ETH, worth about $15,500 at the time cited in the article. Its original cost was 34.17 ETH, or about $64,600, for a loss of 75.7%.
The report says those sales were part of his routine in the first half of August. It also cites Lookonchain data showing that in June he sold 34 BAYC at a loss for about 326 ETH in proceeds, while taking an overall loss of about 399 ETH. The article says those sales were mainly used to add margin to leveraged ETH longs on Hyperliquid and avoid or delay liquidation. That is where the community joke about "selling apes to stay alive" came from.
As of publication, OpenSea data cited in the report showed that Machi still held 4,357 NFTs, but the total value of that NFT portfolio had fallen to $3.17 million. That included 128 BAYC worth about $2.5 million and 102 MAYC worth about $288,000. For comparison, the report says he once held 300 BAYC at peak exposure.
The latest rally produced a large short-term gain on-chain. The position structure, funding burden, liquidation thresholds and Machi’s record of repeated liquidations show that the risk has not gone away.