James Wynn's crazy gambling journey
Recently, the former PEPE boss has transformed into a contract whale, frequently opening positions worth hundreds of millions of dollars on Hyperliquid, attracting market attention. As one of the few whales publicly active in the community on Hyperliquid, James Wynn's daily position changes have become a hot topic for many investors. What is James Wynn's background, and how does he manipulate the entire market's nerves with his statements and positions?
The '10U God' who started from PEPE
According to James Wynn's account on Twitter, he was born in a 'forgotten town' in England, filled with crime, drugs, alcohol, and poverty. James Wynn stated that he lived in dire conditions since childhood, 'barely making ends meet each week.'
In 2022, after getting involved in cryptocurrencies, James Wynn became one of the '10 U gods.' He often drifted between several ultra-small MEMEs until he later discovered PEPE on iToken. Subsequently, James Wynn chose to heavily invest in PEPE and thus made tens of millions of dollars. Previously, another report by PANews also verified this point from the blockchain. (Related reading: Legendary Meme coin hunter James: Made 25 million dollars from 7,000 dollars, now the shouting effect is ineffective.)
From the information on social media, James Wynn started joining Twitter in 2023, and almost all of his initial content focused on the promotion and publicity of the PEPE coin. In April 2023, James Wynn predicted that the market value of the PEPE token would rise to 4.2 billion dollars. At that time, the market value was 4.2 million dollars. A year later, this prediction not only came true but even exceeded his expectations at that time. In October 2024, the market value of PEPE reached a peak of over 10 billion dollars, becoming one of the highest market value MEME coins.
Of course, during this process, as one of the largest holders of PEPE coins, James Wynn also made huge profits. According to previous statistics from PANews, James Wynn's principal in PEPE trading was only 7,600 dollars, and by April 2024, his profits exceeded 25 million dollars. Considering that PEPE later rose again by about three times, James Wynn's total profit may exceed 50 million dollars.
Transition after the reputation of fans was damaged
By 2024, with the successful creation of the PEPE deity persona, James Wynn's posts began to cover more MEME coins (such as BIAO, ANDY, WOLF), and he often issued some new token calls. In April 2024, James Wynn recommended a token named ELON and subsequently shouted it out crazily like he did with PEPE.
Meanwhile, James Wynn quietly laid out this token using several wallets. Under the compelling recommendation, many community players began to follow and buy ELON. After the token skyrocketed a hundredfold, James Wynn claimed that the token had issues and stated that he had sold off his entire position.
This wave of operations caused the price of ELON to drop 70% in a short time, leaving many players buried in James Wynn's liquidation slide. Such actions also severely damaged James Wynn's reputation in the community, and people began to realize that the MEME deity was not reliable.
Subsequently, James Wynn's content gradually began to shift, transitioning from a community promoter to an investor and analyst. After the second half of 2024, he started to focus more on Bitcoin trends and market analysis. He also changed his Twitter name from 'James Wynn (The GOAT)' to the current 'James Wynn the Whale.'
1.2 billion dollar position high leverage gamble
In March 2025, James Wynn formally transitioned to Hyperliquid, depositing about 6 million dollars to engage in contract trading. In just two months, through high leverage operations on Hyperliquid, by May 24, James Wynn increased his profits to around 48 million dollars.
Especially in the past month, through frequent high leverage and large position investments, James Wynn not only frequently brought his operations to the social media hot list but also proved his trading talent or luck again with a monthly profit of 36 million dollars.
His trading targets on Hyperliquid are surprisingly simple, mainly focusing on Bitcoin and a few meme coins like PEPE, TRUMP, and FARTCOIN.
For example, on April 6, 2025, he went long on Bitcoin at an average price of 94,292 dollars with 40x leverage; when Bitcoin's price rose from 94,000 dollars to 100,000 dollars, his floating profit reached 5 million dollars. His 10x leveraged long position on PEPE had a floating profit of as much as 23 million dollars. The trading of TRUMP and FARTCOIN tokens also contributed approximately 5 million to 5.57 million dollars and 4.3 million to 5.15 million dollars in profits, respectively.
As of May 24, James Wynn's total funds on Hyperliquid were approximately 55.8 million dollars, compared to an initial position of 1.25 billion dollars. His overall leverage ratio was about 22 times, and under such leverage, if the market volatility exceeds 5%, he could face comprehensive liquidation. Thus, his trading style belongs to a high-risk, high-reward route, which is not suitable for ordinary traders.
Of course, considering that James Wynn had already made tens of millions of dollars in principal from PEPE and other MEMEs, his positions were still within his risk control range. On May 24, James Wynn closed a position worth 1.2 billion dollars, with a loss of about 13.39 million dollars. Due to this huge loss on the trade, his overall profit also fell back to around 40 million dollars.
Looking at James Wynn's cryptocurrency trading career, from being obscure to becoming a MEME leader, to transforming again into a contract trading giant. James Wynn's experience seems to best match people's imagination of the cryptocurrency wealth story. And he himself seems unwilling to be a low-profile person, despite holding massive wealth, he still remains active on social media.
This exposure has also practically brought him benefits. During the MEME shouting period, he could use his influence to ensure that the MEME coins he invested in always had followers to lift them up. As he transitioned to contract trading, as market attention increased, James Wynn's actions would also influence some traders' judgments on the market trends, even forming a following effect (although this influence might not be as evident as during the MEME coin period).
Overall, James Wynn's success seems to be a blend of market timing, exceptional courage (or extreme risk-taking spirit), and strong self-marketing ability. Ultimately, what James Wynn's 'rise to wealth' leaves the market may be more questions than answers. Is he a trading genius with keen insight, or merely a lucky person who seized the trend of the times? Is the next stop wealth or bankruptcy?
This is far from over; the cryptocurrency market has never lacked phase 'tyrants,' but becoming a 'evergreen' still requires the test of time.
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