Crypto Millionaire James Fickel Loses $43 Million On Ethereum Long Bet After Missing $17.2 Million Profit Opportunity

Updated: 16 September 2024

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Crypto millionaire James Fickel lost $43 million on a long bet on Ethereum after missing an opportunity to take a $17.2 million profit just four days into the trade.

Fickel, who is the founder of Amaranth Foundation and a crypto whale investor, bet on Ethereum outperforming Bitcoin in January, according to analytics firm Lookonchain.

It said in a Sept. 14 post on X that Fickel borrowed 3,061 Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC0 worth $172 million from the Aave lending protocol and exchanged it for 56,445 ETH at 0.05424 per coin as he bet that the ETH price would rise

Fickel’s Ethereum Trade Started Out Well

Though the trade initially went well, it quickly soured, leaving Fickel with a huge loss. After taking out the the loan to purchase Ether, the ETH/BTC pair tumbled more than 25%.

“He currently has 2,196 $WBTC($132M) in debt on #Aave, losing ~18,000 $ETH($43.7M) in total!,” Lookonchain said.

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

Fickel is now $132 million in debt on the trade. In the past 11 hours, he has repaid over $30 million to Aave, reducing the outstanding loan to $102 million.

Despite opening the trade on January 10 during a spike in the Ethereum price, Fickel’s sat on a loss since March 13, according to data from TradingView.

The crypto millionaire failed to book 10% profits on his ETH/BTC position twice in 74 days.

Fickel was in April ranked by Arkham Intelligence as the 5th richest person in crypto based on their wallet balances, with a total wallet net worth of $446 million.