2025 Whale Saga: Mansion Kidnapping, Supply Chain Poisoning, and Billions Liquidated

Original Title: "Top 10 Hard Lessons of the 2025 Crypto Market: From Contract Liquidation to Trusting 'Customer Service,' Whales Paid Hundreds of Millions in 'Tuition'"

Original Author: angelilu, Foresight News

The 2025 crypto market was like a high-speed express train. Looking back from the platform, people could only see the survivors inside the train raising their glasses in celebration, but few paid attention to those passengers who were thrown off track.

This year, we not only witnessed gamblers going crazy in the futures market but also saw the Web3 Dark Forest Rule cruelly seep into the physical world. The stories of getting rich quick were similar, but the ways of getting liquidated were diverse. We reconstructed the losing records of several typical figures in 2025 — among them were billionaires, tech geeks, legendary gamblers, and even ordinary people who just wanted to save money.

Trading Section

Machi Big Brother Becomes the On-Chain 'Liquidation Champion'

· Identity: Renowned singer, entrepreneur, NFT whale

· Loss: Liquidated 71 times in just 19 days 11 months ago; Daily loss of $21.28 million

Huang Licheng's PnL Curve Chart, Source: Hyperbot

If we turn the clock back three months, Machi Big Brother was still the winner in the Hyperliquid ecosystem, with a paper gain of over $44 million at one point, heavily invested in HYPE, XPL, and ETH. By the end of September and the beginning of October, the XPL price collapsed (with a maximum drawdown of 46%), and HYPE also saw a significant pullback. He did not take profits in time, leading to a rapid expansion of the unrealized losses of a single coin to over $8.7 million.

With the "10.11" market crash, Machi Big Brother officially turned into a loss. However, this turning point into a loss was not the end for Machi Big Brother but the starting point of his infinite martingale strategy. He tried to recoup his losses by longing ETH with high leverage. He held long positions of around 7,000 to 30,000 ETH (leverage ratios often between 20x and 25x), but every time ETH took a nosedive, it would trigger his liquidation.

In just 19 days from November 1 to 19, Machi Big Brother was forcibly liquidated 71 times. This means that in nearly three weeks, he experienced nearly 4 liquidations per day on average, claiming the title of the on-chain "Liquidation Champion," but he kept topping up, getting liquidated, topping up again, and getting liquidated again. As of the time of writing, his total perpetual contract loss on Hyperliquid has reached $21.20 million. From earning $45.66 million to losing $21.20 million, in less than 3 months, he experienced a withdrawal of assets exceeding $66 million. Despite a brief recovery, he is still deeply in loss and in a state of frequent fund injections and liquidations.

Unlike ordinary people, Brother Ma, Licheng Huang, has even shouldered the aura of a superstar. In the 1990s, he was the soul of Taiwan's L.A. Boyz, a pioneering idol who brought pure American hip-hop into the Chinese music scene. This was not Brother Ma's first time playing the role of a "retail savior." Everyone surely remembers the NFT battlefield of 2023. In order to compete for BLUR's airdrop points, he once frenziedly traded in this abyss. The outcome was tragic: he did receive airdropped tokens worth 1.9 million USD, but at the cost of losing 12,000 ETH (worth 25 million USD at the time).

James Wynn's Billion-Dollar Gamble

· Name: James Wynn

· Loss: Opened a 1.25 billion USD Bitcoin long position, lost 100 million USD in a week

If Brother Ma is considered "the pastime of the wealthy," then James Wynn's story is like that of a mortal who flew too high and ultimately had his wings melted by the sun.

Also involved in a smart contract transaction, James Wynn's legend began with PEPE but erupted in the Hyperliquid contract battlefield. In March 2025, James Wynn, armed with the massive 25 million USD he earned from PEPE, plunged into Hyperliquid to start contract trading. This 25 million USD windfall was earned by heavily betting on the meme coin PEPE with a capital of just 7,600 USD in 2023. Unsatisfied with spot trading gains, he aggressively leveraged long positions on PEPE and ETH from March to April, once again profiting 25 million USD, becoming a super whale holding 50 million USD.

In May 2025, James Wynn turned his attention to Bitcoin, when BTC was challenging the historical high of 110,000 USD. At that time, James Wynn did something monumental on-chain: near Bitcoin's historical high of around 108,000 USD, he went all-in with 40x leverage, crazily opening a massive long position worth a nominal 12.5 billion USD. What does this number represent? His on-chain position alone exceeded the treasury reserves of many small countries. He attempted to use this 12.5 billion USD leverage to pry open the door to becoming the world's richest man.

However, a sharp Bitcoin retracement that broke through the 105,000 USD mark became James Wynn's nightmare. In just one week, his invaluable contract melted away like an iceberg in the sun. Ultimately, he had to liquidate his position, losing nearly 100 million USD. Overnight, almost all of the astronomical figures he earned through PEPE were returned to the market. In the aftermath, he left a nihilistic quote on Twitter: "Money isn't real."

Unyielding, James Wynn attempted to "turn the tables" in November, but misjudged his direction — he bet that Bitcoin would drop below $92,000 and went all in on a short position. Data recorded his final madness: in just 2 months, he was liquidated 45 times; on his worst day, he was liquidated 12 times within 12 hours. The once "Meme Coin Oracle" has now become a gambler shouting at the candlesticks. He vowed on social media, "I will sell all stablecoins to go short. Either make billions or go completely bankrupt."

Spot Whale Loses $125 Million, "Cuts Losses" and Exits

· Identity: Whale shorting 66,000 ETH

· Loss: Single position floating loss of $125 million; transferred $140 million to Binance to dump within 8 hours

In addition to futures contracts, whales holding spot positions also suffered massive losses. The "whale shorting 66,000 ETH" was once a hunter in the market, skilled at conducting large-scale short arbitrage using lending protocols. But this time, the hunter became the hunted.

Earning $24 million through shorting did not satisfy him; he wanted more — he wanted to "short the market twice." On November 5, after closing his short positions, he immediately reversed course and began to bottom fish recklessly. Within just 9 days until November 14, like a man possessed, he transferred a total of $1.187 billion to Binance, withdrew 422,000 ETH, and raised his average holding price to $3,413. For this high-stakes gamble, he even used on-chain leverage loans amounting to as high as $485 million.

The market dealt the greediest one the harshest blow. As the ETH price plummeted, breaking below the $3,000 mark, his "bottom fishing" turned into a "deep trap." On-chain data recorded his most desperate moment: during November's darkest period, his massive long position saw a floating loss of up to $133 million. The $24.48 million profit previously hard-earned through shorting was instantly swallowed by this massive loss, with even the principal entirely wiped out to the tune of a full billion. The former "Shorting War God," along with borrowed money, turned into a "leveraged gambler" burdened with $480 million in debt.

On November 16, the whale began a large-scale retreat, redeeming 177,000 ETH from Aave and starting to gradually deposit 44,000 ETH to Binance (worth $140 million), realizing a $125 million loss.

The Whale Who Fell in the "Chinese Meme" Trap

· Identity: High-profile holder of Chinese Meme tokens

· Loss: Total loss of 3.598 million dollars (Single-asset loss of 2.49 million)

Aside from holding onto ETH for dear life, many have also experienced significant losses due to holding onto Meme coins.

In October 2025, as the market hype rotated between AI and mainstream coins, this whale found himself trapped in the narrative maze of "Chinese Meme."

Like a determined stamp collector, he invested 4.49 million dollars and went on a frenzy to accumulate a series of Chinese Meme tokens on the BSC chain: "Binance Life," "Customer Service Xiao He," "Hakimi." He heavily bought into "Binance Life" at an average price of $0.3485 and continued to buy the dip until his holdings reached 4.08 million dollars, becoming the 7th largest individual holder of the token. The market gave him numerous opportunities to exit, but he chose to be a "diamond hand."

After holding for an initial 8 days, his meme assets shrank by 56.5%, with a floating loss of over 3 million dollars. All tokens except "Hakimi" collapsed, but he did not liquidate and continued to chase the price up. Finally, in early November, his faith collapsed in the face of the gravity of the zeroing candlesticks, and he liquidated all tokens in 50 minutes. The outcome was brutal: a total loss of 3.598 million dollars. Of this, the token "Binance Life" alone caused him a loss of 2.49 million dollars.

This whale paid 3.6 million dollars for a lesson: in the world of Meme coins, what is scarier than the contract is liquidity depletion; once the trend sours, every second is a window to escape, and HODLing only leads to zero.

The "Unnamed Hacker's" "Karmic Retribution"

· Identity: On-chain hacker / Top-tier "counter indicator"

· Loss: A loss of only 8.88 million dollars in October trades

This may be the most "spiritually fulfilling" loss story of 2025. We usually think of hackers as cold, rational predators, but this "unnamed hacker" proved through actions: he only understands code, not candlesticks.

In March and August of this year, he stole a huge amount of funds through technical means, and he should have disappeared quietly to enjoy his wealth. However, he made a fatal mistake—trying to use the stolen money to trade coins. As it turns out, the whales of the crypto market are more ruthless than hackers.

Practicing "buy high, sell low" skillfully on ETH, at the beginning of October, he aggressively bought 8637 ETH at an average price of $4400 (approximately $38.01 million). Holding for only 10 days, he encountered the "10·11" flash crash. Instead of holding, he panicked and market sold at a floor price of $3778, resulting in a loss of $5.37 million.

In mid-October, during another dip, he panic-sold again, resulting in a $3.24 million loss. The most ludicrous scene occurred just an hour after his sell-off—watching the price bounce back, he couldn't resist buying back over 2000 ETH at a higher price. The price dropped again, forcing him to sell once more. As of October 18, in just half a month, due to frequent buying high and selling low, he accumulated a total loss of $8.88 million.

This trader's firsthand experience tells us: stealing money requires technical skills, but safeguarding wealth requires the right mindset. In the face of volatile price action, even a trader is merely a tender green onion.

Attack Section

User Babur, failed "multisig," and costly "double-spend"

· Identity: On-chain whale

· Loss: Approximately $27 million (some funds have been washed through Tornado Cash)

If some losses are due to overly complex technology, then Babur's $27 million loss was due to "extremely poor habits."

By the end of December 2025, SlowMist Founder Cao and CertiK successively disclosed this incident. Whale Babur's Solana and Ethereum addresses were drained, resulting in a massive $27 million loss. What is heartbreaking is that Babur actually had a certain level of security awareness—he used an industry-leading safe multisig wallet to store his assets.

In theory, a multisig wallet requires multiple private key signatures for transfers, ensuring high security. However, an investigation revealed a fatal rookie mistake: Babur had stored the two required signing private keys on the same computer. It's as if you bought the most secure safe in the world (multisig), requiring two keys to open, but then hung both keys on the safe's door handle.

When he double-clicked on a malicious file on the computer ("supply chain attack"), the virus effortlessly took all the private keys. Cao commented on this, saying, "A real supply chain attack is probably very simple, with no advanced skills, and many threats are also very common."

Subsequently, CertiK detected that the hacker had transferred 4250 ETH (approximately $14 million) to Tornado Cash for mixing. Babur paid a high price of $27 million for a very basic lesson: even the most advanced multisig is just a layer of glass if the private key is not physically isolated.

Suji Yan, the "Vanishing 11 Minutes" at His Birthday Party

· Identity: Mask Network Founder

· Loss: $4 million (the nightmare on his 29th birthday)

On February 27, 2025, what should have been a joyful celebration of Mask Network founder Suji Yan's 29th birthday turned into a nightmarish scenario reminiscent of a locked-room mystery. It was not a sophisticated cyberattack from the dark web but a chilling crisis involving someone close. According to Suji's account, he was celebrating his birthday at a private gathering with a dozen friends. Just because he took a trip to the restroom and his phone was out of sight for a few minutes, the gears of fate started turning.

On-chain data revealed that, in the following 11 minutes, the hacker craftily and deliberately siphoned off over $4 million from his public wallet through manual transactions. Slowmist Labs co-founder Wu Xing confirmed that these funds were rapidly converted to ETH and dispersed to 7 addresses.

"The operation was manual and lasted for over 11 minutes." This meant that behind the laughter and cheers, someone (or perhaps lurking malicious software) exploited this brief window to carry out the heist right under his nose. Suji admitted, "I trusted my friends, but this is a nightmare for anyone." This incident became the chilling lesson of Web3 in 2025: never store a significant amount of assets in a hot wallet's private key kept in a phone carried around for socializing and photography.

Sam Altman's Ex-Boyfriend's Night of Terror

· Identity: Prominent Tech Investor, Ex-Boyfriend of Sam Altman

· Loss: $11 million + Physical Harm

If on-chain theft is considered a financial loss, Lachy Groom's experience shattered the illusion that decentralized assets are safer. On a Saturday in November, an armed robber disguised as a delivery person deceived his way into Lachy's mansion in San Francisco. Lachy not only faced an armed kidnapping but was also bound with duct tape and physically assaulted. In a harrowing 90-minute ordeal, the robber coerced him to reveal his password and emptied his account of $11 million worth of crypto assets. This incident symbolizes a worrying trend in Web3 crime: hackers no longer need to breach your code; they just need to breach your front door.

Recommended Reading: "Even ChatGPT's Creator's Ex-Boyfriend Was Robbed of Millions of Dollars, How Crazy Is Foreign Robbery"

Furthermore, according to Bloomberg, over the past three years, there has been a significant increase in "Sim Swapping" attacks targeting cryptocurrency holders. According to a database maintained by Jameson Lopp, co-founder of cryptocurrency security company Casa, around 60 such attacks have been recorded globally this year, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in losses.

TikTok Buyer, the Cold Wallet "Poisoned" by the Supply Chain

· Identity: Ordinary Investor

· Loss: 50 million RMB (approximately $7.08 million)

This is a typical case of "cognitive harvesting." An investor, in pursuit of so-called absolute security, decided to use a hardware cold wallet to store assets. However, he made a fatal mistake: he purchased a "discounted" cold wallet on TikTok.

Unbeknownst to him, this wallet had already been tampered with before leaving the factory, and the private key had long been leaked. When he confidently deposited 50 million RMB, he actually sent the money directly to the hacker. A few hours later, the assets were laundered through Huione, leaving no trace. This costly lesson tells us that the biggest security vulnerability is often human greed for bargains.

Believing "Official Customer Service," a Whale Loses $91.4 Million

· Identity: A "compliant" whale with $300 million in Bitcoin

· Loss: 783 Bitcoins (valued at approximately $91.4 million at the time)

On August 19, 2025, a whale fell victim to a "social engineering attack." He did not click on any links recklessly or download any viruses; he simply answered a phone call. On the other end was a gentle, professional voice claiming to be a "hardware wallet official senior engineer," informing him of a critical vulnerability in his device that required immediate "firmware upgrade." Over a phone call lasting an hour, under the "guidance," this whale completely let his guard down and willingly handed over 783 Bitcoins worth around $91.4 million. After the malicious transfer, the funds began undergoing the typical money laundering process, being repeatedly deposited into Wasabi Wallet (a privacy tool commonly used for obfuscation and tracing).

A similar case occurred in 2024, with an even larger amount involved, where the victim lost around $300 million worth of Bitcoin.

Survivorship Bias

These 10 names, with their billion-dollar tuition, show us the true face of the Web3 dark forest: There are no absolute winners here, hackers steal code only to lose to whales in the secondary market; there is no absolute security as Babur's technical defenses succumb to the physical world's "poisoning"; there are also no impregnable fortresses, as Lachy's mansion cannot withstand the robber's gun, and whales trusting "official support" cannot resist the deep-seated human tendency to blind obedience.

Every person on this list was once at the top of their respective field or was simply lucky. If there is one survival rule that must be remembered in 2025, it may not be "how to get rich quick," but rather "how to survive."

In the crypto market, staying alive is far more important than how much you earn. After all, only those who survive will be able to tell the story of next year.

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