Aave

Ethereum

Wrapped Bitcoin

Bitcoin

James

Crypto millionaire James Fickel has suffered losses exceeding $43 million since Jan. 10, as his debt on the decentralized lending platform Aave surged to $132 million.
Fickel, an early Ethereum investor and the founder of longevity research firm Amaranth Foundation lost over $43.7 million by essentially betting on Ether’s price (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/ethereum-price" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">ETH</a>) against Bitcoin (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-price" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">BTC</a>).
Based on the millionaire’s 2024 investments, Fickel expected Ether price to rise against Bitcoin’s when he first borrowed $172 million worth of Wrapped Bitcoin (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/wrapped-bitcoin-price-index" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">WBTC</a>) on Jan. 10, <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/lookonchain/status/1834849876171276389" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">according</a> to a Sept. 14 X post by Lookonchain.
<blockquote>
 “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 16,000 $ETH for 671 $WBTC($39.9M) at $0.042 to repay the debt on #Aave.”
</blockquote>
<figure>
 <img alt="Crypto millionaire loses $43 million in Ether-Bitcoin trading bet" name="" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-09/0191f069-7374-7321-a341-10afb1ccf8a8">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Source: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/lookonchain/status/1834849876171276389" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://x.com/lookonchain/status/1834849876171276389">Lookonchain</a>
 </figcaption>
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Since the start of 2024, Ether has underperformed compared to Bitcoin. According to Binance <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.tradingview.com/chart/3Z94myyP/?symbol=VANTAGE%3ABTCETHhttps://www.tradingview.com/chart/3Z94myyP/?symbol=VANTAGE%3ABTCETH" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" text="null" title="https://www.tradingview.com/chart/3Z94myyP/?symbol=VANTAGE%3ABTCETHhttps://www.tradingview.com/chart/3Z94myyP/?symbol=VANTAGE%3ABTCETH">data</a>, Ether’s price relative to Bitcoin has dropped by more than 24% year-to-date (YTD) and over 9% in the past month.
<figure>
 <img alt="Crypto millionaire loses $43 million in Ether-Bitcoin trading bet" name="" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-09/0191f06a-2310-7498-8066-61f7ca2892a2">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 ETH/BTC, year-to-date chart. Source: TradingView
 </figcaption>
</figure>
Related: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/usdc-circle-headquarters-move-new-york-ipo" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">USDC issuer Circle announces HQ move to New York ahead of IPO</a>
<h2 id="fickel-has-a-123-million-aave-debt">Fickel has a $123 million Aave debt</h2>
Fickel’s debt on the decentralized lending platform Aave reached over $132 million worth of WBTC as of Sept. 14, according to Debank <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://debank.com/profile/0xd85351181b3f264ee0fdfa94518464d7c3defada?chain=eth" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">data</a>
His increasing debt stems from his earlier belief that Ether would outperform Bitcoin. By borrowing Bitcoin to purchase Ether, he effectively took a short position on Bitcoin. However, as Ether’s price dropped relative to Bitcoin, this strategy resulted in his losses.
<figure>
 <img alt="Crypto millionaire loses $43 million in Ether-Bitcoin trading bet" name="" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-09/0191f06a-7ee7-72bb-bf2e-36dad16aeb11">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 James Fickel Aave loan. Source: Debank
 </figcaption>
</figure>
Fickel is widely known for investing $400,000 into Ether when it was only worth $0.80.
Related: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-price-anxiety-stage-september-losses-silver-lining" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">Bitcoin ’anxiety stage‘ risks more September losses, but there’s a silver lining</a>
<h2 id="ether-etfs-continue-to-bleed-as-grayscale-s-ethe-surpasses-2-7b-outflows">Ether ETFs continue to bleed as Grayscale’s ETHE surpasses $2.7b outflows</h2>
The continuous outflows from the US Ether <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/explained/what-are-etf-fund-flows-and-why-do-they-matter" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/explained/what-are-etf-fund-flows-and-why-do-they-matter">exchange-traded funds (ETFs)</a> are contributing to Ether’s sluggish price action.
The ETH ETFs have recorded a cumulative $581 million worth of negative net outflows, since they <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/grayscale-transfers-1b-eth-coinbase-ahead-ether-etf-launch" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/news/grayscale-transfers-1b-eth-coinbase-ahead-ether-etf-launch">debuted for trading on July 23</a>. Grayscale’s ETF accounted for the majority, or over $2.7 billion worth of net outflows, according to Farside Investors data.
<figure>
 <img alt="Crypto millionaire loses $43 million in Ether-Bitcoin trading bet" name="" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-09/0191f06b-28f3-7aa8-b949-f8fd791fe6b5">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Ethereum ETF Flow (USD, million). Source: Farside Investors
 </figcaption>
</figure>
Investors anticipated a significant price increase from the launch of the Ether ETFs. For Bitcoin, ETFs accounted for about <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-etfs-about-75-new-investment" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">75% of new investment</a> in the cryptocurrency by Feb. 15 as it surpassed the $50,000 mark. Magazine: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/simple-change-save-ethereum-roadmap-to-hell/" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">Proposed change could save Ethereum from L2 ‘roadmap to hell’</a>

Crypto millionaire loses $43 million in Ether-Bitcoin trading bet

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