Huang Licheng’s $38M High‑Leverage Gamble: 40x BTC & 25x ETH – Will the Market Crash?

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Huang Licheng levers up: $14.5m <a href="https://jpykr.com/btc-usd/">BTC</a> long and $23.3m <a href="https://jpykr.com/eth-usd/">ETH</a> long on the lineSummary

  • HyperInsight data show Huang Licheng has boosted his Bitcoin long to about $14.5 million with more than 40x leverage, opening around $76,357 and facing liquidation near $72,904.5.
  • He is also running a 25x leveraged Ethereum long worth roughly $23.3 million, with an average entry price of $2,311.63 and a liquidation level at $2,202.7.
  • The positions, taken on derivatives venue Hyperliquid, put tens of millions of dollars in notional exposure at risk if BTC and ETH see even mid‑single‑digit pullbacks from current levels.

Data from HyperInsight, a blockchain and derivatives monitoring service, shows that prominent trader Huang Licheng has significantly increased his Bitcoin investments. He now holds around $14.5 million in long Bitcoin positions, using leverage of over 40x.

HyperInsight flags fresh BTC and ETH leverage from Huang Licheng

The data shows the position opened around $76,357, and would be automatically closed if the price dropped to about $72,904.5. This means a price decrease of roughly 4.5% to 5% from the opening price could eliminate the margin and force the position to close.

HyperInsight and its data sources have been monitoring a trader named Huang’s activity on Hyperliquid recently. They’ve observed him frequently using very high leverage – 40x on Bitcoin – which has led to significant temporary losses, exceeding 60% on some trades when the market became unstable.

25x ETH long adds another $23.3m in risk

In addition to his Bitcoin investment, Huang has a significant leveraged position in Ethereum, currently valued at about $23.3 million. According to recent data from HyperInsight, he opened this position when Ethereum was priced around $2,311.63. However, the price would need to drop to $2,202.7 to trigger a forced closure of the trade, leaving him with only a small 4.7% buffer.

Reports from PANews and Phemex indicated that Huang consistently increased his investment in Ethereum throughout March and April. He sometimes held thousands of ETH in highly leveraged positions—bets that magnified potential profits but also carried significant risk, with relatively small price drops potentially triggering automatic sell-offs.

Phemex recently noted that the trader was taking profits on orders between $2,365 and $2,425. At the same time, they were holding a very large long position on Hyperliquid – around $32.8 million, using 25x leverage.

A leveraged book that can move—and be moved by—the market

Around mid-April, Phemex calculated that Huang’s combined Bitcoin and HYPE positions totaled over $56.5 million, and he also had significant long positions in Ethereum worth tens of millions of dollars.

An analysis by PANews revealed that he held roughly $79.16 million in long positions, including approximately 555 Bitcoin (worth around $42.76 million) and 15,600 Ether (valued at about $35.85 million), with a smaller amount in HYPE. This demonstrates his willingness to use significant leverage on both well-known and smaller cryptocurrencies.

Huang’s large, strategic trades are important to other traders for two reasons. First, if the price of Bitcoin or Ethereum hits the levels where he’d be forced to sell, it could trigger a large wave of selling. Second, because Huang has consistently made successful trades when prices are moving in a clear direction, his positions can signal where the market is likely headed.

If you’re carefully managing risk, here’s what to understand: when big traders are using very high leverage (25 to 40 times) and have tight safety margins, even normal price fluctuations can trigger large-scale liquidations. This can briefly increase price swings not just on platforms like Hyperliquid, but across the market.

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2026-05-01 19:31