Machi Big Brother Is Back With His Biggest Ethereum Bet Yet

Machi Big Brother has returned to Ethereum markets with one of his most aggressive trades yet. On January 12, the high-profile crypto whale re-opened a $34 million leveraged ETH long on Hyperliquid.

The position moved against him almost immediately, leaving the trade down roughly $325,000 within hours. However, the bigger picture looks worse. His Hyperliquid account now sits $22.5 million in cumulative losses and more than $67 million below its peak equity, according to on-chain tracking.

A Pattern of High-Leverage Conviction

This marks Machi’s first major re-entry since a wave of forced liquidations in December wiped out several of his Ethereum longs. 

Machi Big Brother is the crypto pseudonym of Jeffrey (Jeff) Huang, a high-profile trader, on-chain whale, and controversial figure in the crypto community. 

Machi’s latest bet follows months of extreme risk-taking. In November and December, he built large ETH longs ranging from $20 million to more than $25 million in notional exposure, often using 15x to 25x leverage.

Those positions collapsed during ETH’s pullback from the $3,300 area. 

Ethereum Price Sits at a Critical Level

Machi’s timing comes as Ethereum trades in a fragile zone.

ETH currently hovers around the $3,000–$3,100 range, after failing to break resistance near $3,300 earlier this month. 

Over the past few weeks, price action has turned sideways as ETF outflows and fading Fed rate-cut expectations weigh on crypto markets.

At the same time, ETH supply on exchanges remains near multi-year lows, and staking continues to lock up large amounts of coins. 

That creates a tight market structure, where sharp moves can happen quickly in either direction.

Still, sentiment remains cautious. Futures funding has turned negative at times, and on-chain data shows traders hedging rather than building fresh longs.

What Machi Is Really Betting On

Machi’s new position signals a high-conviction bet that Ethereum will hold above $3,000 and rebound toward the $3,300–$3,500 zone.

But his leverage leaves little margin for error. With less than $2 million backing a $34 million position, a single-digit percentage drop in ETH could trigger another liquidation.

For markets, his trade acts less as a bullish signal and more as a stress test of Ethereum’s current price floor.