From Peak to Zero: Brother Ma Ji's Crypto Frenzy and Blood-Red Warning
When Huang Licheng left a casual comment on social media saying “Was fun while it lasted.” his account’s nearly $60 million in assets had already vanished in just 47 days. Once a hip-hop pioneer popular across the Taiwan Strait and Mainland China, he crossed over from the entertainment industry into the tech world, then plunged into the crypto arena, performing a rollercoaster of wealth—“one thought heaven, one thought hell”—over several years. Especially in the past two years, his reckless operations in the contract market exposed the brutality of the crypto world and human greed, sounding a deafening alarm for all profit-seekers.
The Rise and Fall of the Crypto Arena: From “Scythe” to Whale’s Frenzied Accumulation
Brother Ma Ji’s connection to the crypto scene began with the 2017 ICO craze, which was inherently speculative. His first blockchain project, “Mithril (MITH),” touted as “Instagram of blockchain,” raised $51.6 million through private placements with the concept of “social mining.” The token’s price soared after launch, but the team then sold 89% of the circulating tokens, causing the price to plummet 99%, wiping out countless retail investors. He was branded a “scythe.” The “Treasure Island Finance” project in 2018 also ended poorly; after raising $23 million, it collapsed due to embezzlement of $110 million in assets, rendering the project inoperable.
What truly elevated him to “Crypto Whale” status was his relentless pursuit of hot trends. In 2020, during the DeFi boom, he launched the lending protocol Cream Finance, which at its peak had over $1 billion in total value locked. Despite suffering five hacks and losing over $200 million within a year, he continued to profit from early token sales. In 2021, with the NFT craze, he accumulated hundreds of Bored Apes (BAYC), Mutant Apes (MAYC), and other blue-chip NFTs at low prices. After celebrity hype, he flipped 1,010 NFTs during the 2023 Blur platform event, earning $18.6 million. At his peak, his NFT assets were valued at over $300 million. In 2024, during the Solana Meme coin frenzy, he launched BobaOppa tokens in his dog’s name, raising over $40 million in 24 hours of pre-sale, once again demonstrating his sharp market instinct and influence.
By this time, Brother Ma Ji had become a crypto opinion leader, with his trading moves regarded as “investment guides” by retail investors. His rapid wealth accumulation drove the market into frenzy. However, his frequent switch between sectors and project failures gradually fostered a “market control” illusion, laying the groundwork for his later catastrophic contract market failure.
47 Days of Life and Death in the Contract Market: Heaven and Hell with 25x Leverage
If the previous ups and downs still left some room for buffer, the past two years’ contract market operations pushed Brother Ma Ji into a desperate “win and become a god, lose and return to zero” situation. In June 2025, he began trading contracts on the decentralized platform Hyperliquid, initially investing only $460,000, heavily betting on ETH and HIG tokens, and boldly using 25x leverage—meaning a 1% increase in assets could yield 25% profit, but a 1% drop could trigger liquidation.
Initially, fate favored this “whale.” With the bullish market and precise bets, his account’s net worth soared to nearly $60 million within three months, a 130-fold increase, with unrealized gains of $44.84 million. He posted frantic screenshots of his account on Twitter, flaunting his trading achievements, prompting countless retail investors to follow suit and increase their positions, as if wealth was within reach. By then, he was blinded by the huge profits brought by leverage, ignoring risks, even using unrealized gains as margin to add positions, performing “compound leverage” madness.
But the brutality of the crypto market leaves no room for greed. In October 2025, the market suddenly crashed: ETH plummeted from $4,765 to $3,057, and BTC broke below $100,000. Disaster struck instantly. On October 10, his XPL tokens dropped sharply, with a daily loss of $21.53 million, turning gains into losses; on November 3, his 25x leveraged ETH long was forcibly liquidated, losing another $15 million, leaving only $1,670.
Unwilling to accept defeat, he gambled everything on his last funds, opening a 25x leveraged long of 100 ETH—meaning a 2.5% drop in ETH price would trigger liquidation. Within 24 hours, ETH fell below $3,220, and the smart contract automatically liquidated his position, leaving his account balance at just $1,718. From a peak of nearly $60 million to almost zero in just 47 days, leverage had transformed from a “wealth amplifier” into a “destruction catalyst.”
Blood-Red Warning: There Is No “Risk-Free” Myth in Crypto
Brother Ma Ji’s tragedy is not unique but a microcosm of countless speculators in the crypto market. His failure exposed three deadly traps of high-risk trading and left a stark warning.
Leverage is poison; greed is original sin. The frenzy of 25x leverage, endless stop-loss operations, and the illusion of compound gains from unrealized profits are all driven by greed and self-destructive behavior. Leverage can amplify gains but also multiply risks. In the highly volatile crypto market, even the most accurate judgment cannot withstand a sudden reversal. The gambler’s mentality of “wanting to earn more after earning, trying to recover after losing” only deepens losses, ultimately devouring the trader.
Decentralization does not mean risk-free; blindly following trends invites backlash. The decentralized trading platform Brother Ma Ji chose lacked effective risk control. Its automatic liquidation mechanism, without human intervention, could trigger chain reactions of “slippage forced liquidation” during market swings, further enlarging losses. Retail investors following his moves neither understood his position strategies nor were aware of their own risk exposure. Relying solely on the “whale effect,” they blindly followed, ultimately becoming cannon fodder in market volatility. In fact, the crypto market is never short of overnight riches myths, but more often reveals the brutal reality of “one general’s success costs thousands of lives.”
Speculation is hard to sustain; respecting the market is the only way to survive. From ICO “harvesting” to chasing DeFi, NFT, and Meme coin trends, every success of Brother Ma Ji depended on “buy low, sell high” speculation, ignoring the intrinsic value and risks of projects. When he treated the contract market as a “cash machine,” believing he could control the market rhythm, he had already violated basic investment logic. The crypto market may be full of opportunities, but its brutality far exceeds traditional finance. Without respect and risk awareness, no matter how much capital or sharp instinct one has, the end will be zero.
Brother Ma Ji’s story has come to an end. From hip-hop superstar to tech mogul, then to the “worst whale” in crypto, his rise and fall serve as a warning to every profit-seeker: the crypto arena is never a “get rich overnight” paradise but a brutal test of human nature and rationality. Under leverage, heaven and hell are just a step apart; above greed, even the most dazzling wealth myth will eventually turn to bubbles. For future participants, instead of chasing illusory profits, it’s better to adhere to rational investing—stay away from excessive leverage, refuse blind following, respect market laws, and only then can you maintain your own stability amid turbulent capital waves.
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