On-Chain data show that Machi Big Brother turned $152,000 into $12.72 million in just 3 days on Hyperliquid. The fresh surge in the crypto market has put the exchange’s leveraged perpetuals back in the limelight.
Hyperliquid controls a huge portion of trade leverage already. It held a perpetual futures volume of $12.19 billion on August 22 within 24 hours. This is almost 30% of the $40.79 billion volume traded by all perp decentralized exchanges that day.
In other words, when a trader handling Machi’s account reports $12 million in profits, the interest is not just on that single wallet. But rather on how much risk traders are willing to tolerate and the location of that risk.
The bet: about $103 million in longs on $12.9 million
HypurrScan data reveals the figures behind the news. Machi’s portfolio held around $12.9 million in total, consisting almost exclusively of $USDC, but had about $103 million of open trades with $52.4 million in Bitcoin, $44.9 million in Ether, and $6.1 million in Hyperliquid Hype Tokens in long positions. The account was entirely net long with a margin ratio of 14.41%.
Ether has contributed to the gain. $ETH price surged by almost 30% over the last 7 days, while its 24-hour futures open interest went on to hit $33.18 billion. With that level of exposure, a solid move in the right direction can quickly result in 8-figure gains.
The danger is that leverage works just as fast in reverse. Galaxy Research associate Zack Pokorny cautioned in an August 17 report:
“It’s important to note that the entirety of the futures open interest figure does not constitute an absolute amount of leverage.”
Nearly 500 liquidations and a Bored Ape fire sale
This latest run by Machi comes in the wake of a prolonged account of liquidation history. According to Lookonchain, the trader has faced liquidation nearly 500 times. In June, the account was liquidated on seven occasions in a time span of ten hours while making repeated forays into $ETH longs.
Machi(@machibigbrother), who has been liquidated nearly 500 times, turned just $152K into $12.72M in only 3 days, making a profit of over $12.5M!
Looks like he doesn’t need to sell his Bored Apes to keep his longs going anymore.https://t.co/mQLVsDGoSP pic.twitter.com/EpJXACA9GV
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) August 22, 2026
Falling $ETH and PUMP prices left Machi’s positions at $21.77 million in September 2025, forcing him to top up $4.72 million in $USDC to avert liquidation, reported by Cryptopolitan on June 30. Arkham data revealed he had lost a total of $80.43 million since September 2025, including five liquidations on a single January day. To finance the trades, Machi sold several NFTs from his collection of his Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, which had previously had 182 NFTs.
According to Lookonchain’s comment on this week’s reversal, Machi “doesn’t need to sell his Bored Apes to keep his longs going anymore.” Machi himself described his strategy in four words on August 20: “I’m longing my longs.”
Why the liquidation math is unforgiving
Hyperliquid’s liquidation process shows how and why fortunes can turn so fast. According to its documentation, liquidation starts as soon as account equity drops below the maintenance margin, which is set to be 50% of the initial margin required when the asset is leveraged to its fullest.
Maximum leverage can be as low as 3x or as high as 40x. The maintenance level is set at 1.25% to 16.7% of the position value, depending on the instrument.
When it comes to closing positions, all orders are executed using market orders. With regard to positions that exceed 100,000 $USDC, the liquidation takes place in 20% increments, each one separated by a 30-second pause.
That makes the process transparent, but not forgiving. On roughly $103 million of long exposure, even a relatively modest adverse move can start the liquidation chain. That is why a trader who has been liquidated hundreds of times can still be up more than $12 million just days later.
