A leading cryptocurrency investor and millionaire, James Fickel, lost $43 million by going long on his investments in the ETH/BTC trading pair. Fickle’s troubles began in January this year after he bet Ethereum would outperform Bitcoin in 2024.
He took out a $172 million loan from Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) from Aave to execute his prediction. For the uninitiated, Aave is a cryptocurrency lending platform that allows users to borrow and lend digital assets for a price.
Acquiring the $172 million loan from Aave, Fickle purchased 56,445 Ethereum at a rate of 0.05424 BTC per ETH. His main bet here was that Ethereum would surge in price against Bitcoin in 2024. Unfortunately, the millionaire investor got it all wrong, as BTC dominates the cryptocurrency markets, not ETH.
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Cryptocurrency Millionaire Loses a Fortune
According to data from TradingView, the ETH/BTC trading pair has dipped nearly 34% this year. That’s a massive loss for the investor who is already in debt due to the $172 million in cryptocurrency loan. Fickel’s position began dwindling leading to a loss of $132 million today.
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Data from Lookonchain shows that the investor made another blunder by investing more to recover his losses. This development indicates that the cryptocurrency market is ruthless and can wipe out every penny from the wallet.
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“James Fickel lost 18,000 ETH ($43.7 million) by going long the BTC/ETH trading pair! From January 10 to July 1, he borrowed 3,061 WBTC (172 million) from Aave and exchanged it for 56,445 ETH at a rate of 0.05424. Since August 7, he spent 12 million USDC to buy 211 WBTC and exchanged 16,000 ETH for 671 WBTC ($39.9 million) at $0.042 to repay the debt on Aave. He currently has 2,196 WBTC($132M) in debt on Aave, losing 18,000 ETH ($43.7 million) in total!” tweeted cryptocurrency metrics firm Lookonchain.
