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.<\/p>\n
Fickel<\/a>, who is the founder of Amaranth Foundation<\/a> and a crypto whale investor, bet on Ethereum outperforming Bitcoin in January, according to analytics firm Lookonchain.<\/p>\n It said in a Sept. 14 post on X that Fickel borrowed 3,061 Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC0 worth $172 million from the Aave lending protocol and exchanged it for 56,445 ETH at 0.05424 per coin as he bet that the ETH price would rise<\/span><\/p>\n Though the trade initially went well, it quickly soured, leaving Fickel with a huge loss. After taking out the the loan to purchase Ether, the ETH\/BTC pair tumbled more than 25%.<\/span><\/p>\n “He currently has 2,196 <\/span>$WBTC<\/a><\/span>($132M) in debt on <\/span>#Aave<\/a><\/span>, losing ~18,000 <\/span>$ETH<\/a><\/span>($43.7M) in total!,” Lookonchain said.<\/span><\/p>\n James Fickel(@jamesfickel<\/a>) lost ~18,000 $ETH<\/a>($43.7M) by going long the BTC\/ETH trading pair!<\/p>\n From Jan 10 to July 1, he borrowed 3,061 $WBTC<\/a>(172M) from #Aave<\/a> and exchanged it for 56,445 $ETH<\/a> at a rate of 0.05424.<\/p>\n Since Aug 7, he spent 12M $USDC<\/a> to buy 211 $WBTC<\/a> and exchanged… pic.twitter.com\/9DgLjisPgp<\/a><\/p>\n — Lookonchain (@lookonchain) September 14, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nFickel’s Ethereum Trade Started Out Well<\/h2>\n
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