Recently, after just losing $10 million and $20 million in cooperative accounts, new news came out.
I believe everyone has been receiving the following push notifications recently: James Wynn opened another $800 million long position, increased it to $1 billion, floating profit increased to $12 million, floating profit narrowed to $5 million, James closed his position, James opened a reverse short position, James closed the short position, James washed his hands of it, James came back to open long again.......
As of the time of writing, James has once again increased his long position in Bitcoin.
James Wynn, this highly vocal trader, somewhat possesses a performative personality; he doesn't talk about his losses but simply retweeted another X user Jeremy's comment about "some people targeting James Wynn"—perhaps in James Wynn's eyes, this is not merely a simple trade but a real battle, and regarding the so-called reverse-following users, James denies they are his alternate accounts, insisting there is no conspiracy. From $10 battle god to catastrophic loss whale, who is James? Today, let's talk about the journey of this "magical boy."
Hello, this is Blockchain Thinking. Today, we continue with stories from the crypto world.
In a rundown small town in England, James Wynn's childhood was overshadowed by gloom—crime and drugs filled the streets, and the family's financial situation was tight, with weekly living expenses feeling like dancing on a knife's edge. This small town seemed forgotten by time, with young people's paths limited to factory assembly lines or street thuggery. However, who would have thought that this unremarkable poor boy would, with a mere $10 "bet," become a billionaire in just two years, only to have almost everything brought back to dust under the compulsion of gambling.
His story is very similar to that of Liang Xi, a legendary figure in the Chinese crypto world—if you dare to gamble, even a loser can rise to success, and someone in their twenties can be worth billions, but the fate of a gambler seems to always end in going to zero.
The adventure starting point of a poor boy with $10.
James Wynn's family background can be summed up in two words: 'poor.' His father was an alcoholic worker, and his mother supplemented the family income by mending clothes. At a young age, he learned to scavenge the streets for change. The future was an unreachable word for him until 2022, when a chance encounter changed his fate. That year, he stumbled upon a cryptocurrency post in a rundown internet café, where a group called "10 U Warriors" was promoting the myth of "turning $10 into wealth." With a mindset of trying his luck, James exchanged his saved pocket money for 10U and invested in the meme coin market that was still largely ignored.
His first investment was in an unknown small coin, but luck was on his side—days later, this coin surged 50 times, turning $10 into $500. From that moment on, James sniffed the scent of opportunity. He began immersing himself in various crypto communities, studying candlestick charts, tracking the calls of Twitter bigwigs, and even learned to analyze "market sentiment" in the most primitive ways. In 2023, he bet all his funds on PEPE, which at the time had a market cap of only $600,000; insiders laughed at him as a "madman."
James doesn't think so. He stares at the screen, muttering, "Either I turn it around or I go to zero." As a result, when PEPE's market cap broke $10 billion in October 2024, his $7,000 principal had grown to $50 million. With earnings from other coins included, in two years, he turned $10 into over $100 million, and James's story became a legend in the crypto world.
This is just like Liang Xi, another gambler who also came from a low background. In 2021, 17-year-old Liang Xi leveraged a few hundred dollars to shake loose tens of millions in assets, relying on a fierce spirit of "daring to gamble." James and Liang Xi are like two sides of the same coin; their poor starting point made them fearless, while the craziness of the crypto world provided them with a stage for a comeback.
The myth of wealth fades, the scythe swings towards the community.
However, the golden age of the crypto world will not always favor one person. In 2024, with the fading of the early wealth effect, the myth of meme coins skyrocketing gradually cooled. James discovered that making quick money by "buying low and selling high" was becoming increasingly difficult, so he began to seek new paths. This time, he turned his attention to the community—those blindly chasing prices became his "ATM."
In April 2024, James strongly promoted the ELON token on Twitter, claiming it was "the next PEPE." He invested heavily to pump the price, attracting countless retail investors to follow suit. But just as the token price peaked, he suddenly liquidated his position, then threw out a line in the community: "The token has issues," causing the price of Elon to plummet 70%. This operation earned him tens of millions but left countless retail investors with nothing. The community was in an uproar; some cursed him as a "scythe on-chain," while others said his behavior was "too much to bear." Similar incidents also happened with the Monke token; James's calls not only failed to drive up the price but also caused him to incur losses, dragging his reputation down to the bottom.
From a hero rising from a small town to a 'gambler' in the eyes of the community, James's image has taken a 180-degree turn. But he seems not to care, often saying, "The crypto world is a casino; you gamble, you accept the loss." At this point, he is no longer that impoverished small-town youth but a player with immense wealth and ambition.
After 2024: A sluggish market and the nature of a gambler.
After 2024, the crypto world entered a long winter. The hype around altcoins receded, and the 'hundred times myth' of VC coins was shattered one after another, with the whole market permeated by a sense of stagnation. Yet James did not back down; he promptly adjusted his strategy, shifting his focus to technical analysis of Bitcoin. Self-styled as the "whale of the crypto world," he even changed his X name to "James Wynn Whale," frequently making moves in the market amid significant fluctuations with his massive assets.
In March 2025, he started with $6 million on the Hyperliquid platform, using high leverage from 5x to 40x to trade Bitcoin and meme coins, at one point accumulating profits to $46.5 million.
On May 24, he closed his PEPE position, netting a profit of $25.18 million, and then, filled with confidence, opened a $1.2 billion long position in Bitcoin.
On May 25, when he closed his position, he lost $13.39 million, and total income shrank to $40 million. Even so, James was still unwilling to give up. On May 26, he announced on Twitter that he was "retiring," claiming to "leave the casino with $25 million in profit."
If he really decides to stop, he might become a legend that people remember for a long time, like Lang Lang. But before the last word was spoken, a few hours later he jumped back into the market, opening new long positions and posting in the community: "The risk of liquidation keeps me awake, but I just love this feeling."
This scene caused an uproar in the community. Some jokingly called him "a player who understands emotional rhythms," while others mocked him as a "top gambler." As expected, within a week, his account suffered a catastrophic loss of $60 million, total profit and loss dropped to $10.28 million, and the losses in the past 7 days reached as high as $50.02 million. More interestingly, some retail investors began to reverse follow him—when James went long, they went short, profiting handsomely from his "mistakes." This is quite similar to Liang Xi's experience. Liang Xi also had a crash at the peak, with profits evaporating so fast that it was astonishing, even becoming a reverse indicator. A Hyperliquid account made a profit of $5.6 million by reverse following, which led James to deny that Ox2258 was his alternate account, being honest yet inexperienced.
This is similar to Liang Xi; no conspiracy, if he wins, he shows off, if he loses, he admits the loss. His gambling quality is top-notch.
Summary: The fate of a gambler: from comeback to zero.
James Wynn's story is a microcosm of countless gamblers in the crypto world. From a poor small-town boy to a billionaire, he leveraged $10 to stir up over a hundred million dollars in wealth; from a legendary figure chased by thousands to a scythe despised by the community, and ultimately to the high-leverage crash, every step he took was filled with drama.
—as long as you dare to gamble, even losers can rise to success. But because of this gambling nature, he cannot hold onto wealth; if he continues these reckless operations, the status of a whale will ultimately turn to bubbles.
Don't think I'm being alarmist. Livermore, Shawn Quinn, Xu Xiaojun, who among them was not a great figure back in the day? How many gamblers escaped the fate of going to zero, unless you are like Lang Lang, a fat宅, or Banmu Xia, who retired early after achieving success.
Of course, the above advice is useless to us retail investors because we first need to get rich. In the current crypto world, which lacks innovation, it is essentially just a huge casino. If you are willing to fight, $10 can also turn into wealth; but because you are a gambler, no matter how rich your background, it might also go to zero. The ups and downs of James, and the downfall of Liang Xi, are merely scenes in the countless cycles of this casino. It is precisely because of their struggles that later gamblers see hope, and it is their continuous gambling that allows future gamblers to gain opportunities for a comeback in wealth redistribution.
But in the end, it is still advisable: if one day you do turn it around, please read Buffett and Charlie Munger.