World’s 5th Top Crypto Investor Lost $43.5M Revealing How Not All Trades Are Perfect

Thousands of crypto investors are running the market, along with a few other elements. Their sentiments on one crypto can make or destroy it and nobody should forget about the market’s most cruel thing called volatility. As the ongoing situation hints at the crypto bear market, only a few cryptos have attempted a good upsurge, whereas the rest fell, causing heavy losses for their significant holders. And that is where the world’s top 5th crypto investor, James Fickel, lost $43.5M despite his successful crypto trading history, making millions of dollars over the years.

Crypto Investor James Fickel Lost $43.5M In Greed

James Fickel, the world’s 5th successful crypto investor, has made a scary bet this time, losing $43.5M  despite his strategic investments and a good hold of the market insights. He has been quite popular in the crypto trading industry and has made millions of dollars based on his knowledge of finance and technology. However, the volatility and changing trends made him the victim of the market’s cruelty, costing $43.7M in BTC/ ETH pair per Lookonchain reports.

James Fickel(@jamesfickel) lost ~18,000 $ETH($43.7M) by going long the BTC/ETH trading pair!

From Jan 10 to July 1, he borrowed 3,061 $WBTC(172M) from #Aave and exchanged it for 56,445 $ETH at a rate of 0.05424.

Since Aug 7, he spent 12M $USDC to buy 211 $WBTC and exchanged… pic.twitter.com/9DgLjisPgp

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) September 14, 2024

He first began this losing trade in January, continuing to July, where he borrowed 3,061 Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), worth around $172 Million from Aave. He later exchanged these WBTC for 56,445 ETH at an exchange rate of 0.05424. At that time, the market conditions were comparatively favorable, but the conditions shifted quickly, causing Fickel’s strategies to fail.

He soon formulated new plans and began the WBTC buying and exchanging it in August despite its ongoing loss. At this time, he spent 12 Million USDC to buy 211 WBTC tokens, which he later exchanged 16,000 ETH to buy another 671 WBTC ($ 39.9 million) to repay his debt to Aave. He exchanged these ETH for WBTC at an ETH/BTC exchange rate of $0.042, which was a losing deal.

However, the loss did not end there as the Ethereum price continued to decline, pushing him towards higher and higher losses. Ether has been underperforming compared to Bitcoin since the beginning of the years. Moreover, the ETH price relative to Bitcoin is down by 24% on YTD and 9% in the last month alone. With this, he lost $43.7 Million or 18,000 ETH.

James Fickel Still Holds $400 Million Worth of Crypto

Based on the Arkham Intelligence report, the multi-millionaire crypto investor still holds $400 million worth of crypto. Interestingly, all of this investment is in the Ethereum derivatives. However, despite all this holding, it is locked due to his debt of $130,964,731.17  from Aave.

James is an active DeFi user and has focused on the Ethereum ecosystem despite its poor performance in the last few months. Even at the time of writing, ETH price is struggling at $2.4K, but trader like Fickel are still maintaining their trust in this token.

Final Thoughts

James Fickel, a multi-millionaire from crypto trading, has faced a heavy loss in the ongoing market, where he has lost $43.5M in the BTC/ ETH trading pair and owes another $130 Million to Aave in debt. This reveals how not all the crypto trades turn in the trader’s favor and how such an experienced crypto investor could lose next to the market’s volatility. Meanwhile, some other TRON traders made $7.4 million during this time, defending the profitable nature of the market.