Jeffrey Huang, better known in the crypto market as Machi Big Brother, has drawn attention again after one of his on-chain trading accounts rebounded from less than $60,000 to the eight-figure range within days, according to a report by Nancy for PANews.
This time, the focus is not another liquidation headline. It is a rare recovery for a trader who has gone through nearly 500 forced liquidations over the past year and at one point accumulated losses of about $80 million. Even so, the report says the balance may have changed, but the trading style has not.
The account rose from under $60,000 to $12.1 million
HypurrScan data cited by PANews shows that on Aug. 18, Huang’s account was left with less than $60,000 after a liquidation. As the market turned sharply higher, the account’s assets climbed to as much as $12.1 million, producing net gains in the tens of millions of dollars. At the time of the report, the account was still showing about $10.5 million in profit, equal to a return of roughly 175x.
The bounce sharply reduced, but did not eliminate, his prior losses. PANews said the account’s drawdown improved from a recent high of about $36.64 million to roughly $26.12 million, cutting losses by more than $10 million in a short period.
The recovery came through the same compounding long strategy Huang has used before. In practice, that means keeping unrealized gains inside the position rather than taking profit or hedging, then using those gains as fresh margin to expand the long further. If price keeps rising, the position grows with it and returns can accelerate quickly. If the trend reverses, those accumulated gains can disappear just as fast and may take the principal down with them.
Open positions top $108 million in notional value
Current positioning suggests Huang has not eased off the leverage. HypurrScan data shows he has four positions with a combined notional value above $108 million. More than 90% of that exposure sits in ETH and BTC longs.
- ETH long: about $56.04 million in notional value at 25x leverage
- BTC long: about $44.86 million in notional value at 40x leverage
- Additional positions: HYPE and PUMP
The four positions were showing combined unrealized profit of about $1.874 million. ETH contributed $1.319 million, making it the main source of gains in the account. That position has also incurred about $237,000 in funding costs, which PANews said equals roughly 18% of the unrealized profit.
On the BTC side, the 40x leveraged position had generated more than $550,000 in unrealized profit. Even so, the report noted that the distance between the current price and the breakeven level was only about 1.17%, leaving little room for error.
Based on those figures, an account with about $10.5 million in assets is supporting more than $108 million in notional exposure, implying overall leverage of around 10.3x. If the market sees a meaningful pullback, that mix of high leverage and cross-margin exposure could lead to a sharp drawdown and possibly trigger chained liquidations.
Nearly 500 liquidations and losses that once reached $80 million
The turnaround attracted attention largely because Huang has a long record of blowups. Over a little more than a year, he has been forcibly liquidated nearly 500 times. PANews said his account repeatedly swung from multi-million-dollar unrealized gains to deep drawdowns during periods of sharp volatility, with cumulative losses once reaching about $80 million and the account nearing zero more than once.
At one extreme, he was liquidated 10 times within eight hours.
Huang has long been known as a committed Ethereum bull and has concentrated much of his exposure in ETH longs. Even after repeated liquidations, he has rarely changed that directional bias. PANews said losses tied to ETH positions alone reached about $35 million over the past 10 months.
He has also joked publicly that he now cuts his own hair and uses the money saved to keep buying ETH exposure.
Selling BAYC to add margin, while the strategy stays the same
In June, after one ETH position was liquidated, Huang unusually did not add fresh margin right away. That departure from pattern drew market attention, and some began to wonder whether his long-running high-leverage bet might finally be ending.
That did not last long. He later deposited funds again and reopened long positions. To maintain those trades, PANews said Huang sold dozens of Bored Ape Yacht Club, or BAYC, NFTs to replenish margin, leading to the market nickname that he was “selling monkeys to stay alive.”
That record has also cemented his reputation as an on-chain contrarian signal in parts of the community. Traders have joked that doing the opposite of his positions might produce better returns.
Huang appears largely unfazed by the mockery. After a previous run of liquidations pushed him into the news and brought on-chain monitoring account Lookonchain into related media coverage, he posted a screenshot of the story and joked, 「Congratulations, you made it onto Taiwan TV news.」
PANews also noted that Huang has mostly deposited funds into the account rather than withdrawing them, with much of that capital later lost in trading. He has previously shared a Hyperliquid fee bill totaling as much as $2 million, illustrating how active his trading has been.
The rebound is real, but so is the risk
His approach remains defined by high frequency and high leverage. He rarely cuts losses on his own, often allowing the system to liquidate positions instead. When losses appear, he has tended to add funds, post more margin, or increase exposure again.
In an earlier interview, Huang said his style sits somewhere between investing and gambling. He also wrote on social media, 「I never lose, I either win or I get liquidated.」
The latest rebound shows that in a one-way market, leveraged compounding can magnify wealth at striking speed. It also leaves the account highly exposed if prices turn the other way. For now, the recovery is visible on-chain. Whether he can keep it is still an open question.