Recently, the former PEPE big shot has transformed into a contract whale, frequently opening contracts with positions of hundreds of millions of dollars on Hyperliquid, attracting market attention. As one of the few whales publicly identifying themselves and actively participating 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 influence the entire market with his statements and positions?
The '10U War God' who started with PEPE
According to James Wynn's self-description on Twitter, he was born in a 'forgotten small town' in England, filled with crime, drugs, alcohol, and poverty. James Wynn stated that he lived in dire conditions from a young age, 'barely making ends meet each week.'
In 2022, after getting involved in cryptocurrency, James Wynn became a member of the 10U War God. He often floated between several ultra-small MEMEs until discovering PEPE on iToken. Subsequently, James Wynn chose to heavily invest in PEPE and thus earned tens of millions of dollars. Previously, PANews verified this in another report about James Wynn.
From social media information, James Wynn started joining Twitter in 2023, and almost all of his initial content focused on promoting and publicizing PEPE coin. In April 2023, James Wynn predicted that the market cap of PEPE tokens would rise to $4.2 billion, when the market cap was only $4.2 million. A year later, this prediction not only came true but even exceeded his expectations. In October 2024, PEPE's market cap exceeded $10 billion at its peak, becoming one of the highest-valued MEME coins.
Of course, in this process, as one of the largest holders of PEPE coin, James Wynn also gained huge profits. According to previous statistics from PANews, James Wynn's principal in PEPE trading was only $7,600, and by April 2024, his profits exceeded $25 million. Given that PEPE later rose again by about three times, James Wynn's overall earnings could exceed $50 million.
Reputation damage after harvesting fans leads to transformation
By 2024, as the persona of the PEPE god was successfully crafted, James Wynn's posts began to cover more MEME coins (such as BIAO, ANDY, WOLF), and he frequently posted some new token's contract addresses to promote them. In April 2024, James Wynn recommended a token named ELON and went on a mad promotion spree similar to when he recommended PEPE. Meanwhile, James Wynn quietly positioned himself in this token with several wallets. Under such compelling recommendations, many community players began to follow and buy ELON. After the token surged a hundredfold, James Wynn claimed there were problems with the token and stated he had sold all his holdings. This operation caused ELON's price to drop by 70% in a short time, leaving many players buried in James Wynn's liquidation slump. Such actions severely damaged James Wynn's reputation in the community, and people began to realize that the MEME god was not reliable.
Subsequently, James Wynn's content gradually began to shift from community promoter to investor and analyst. In the latter 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 Whale.'
A $1.2 billion position high-leverage gamble
In March 2025, James Wynn officially transitioned to Hyperliquid and deposited approximately $6 million for contract trading. In just two months, through high leverage operations on Hyperliquid, by May 24, James Wynn increased his profits to around $48 million.
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.
His trading targets on Hyperliquid are surprisingly simple, mainly focusing on Bitcoin and a few meme coins such as PEPE, TRUMP, and FARTCOIN. For example, on April 6, 2025, he went long on Bitcoin at an average price of $94,292 with 40x leverage; when the price rose from $94,000 to $100,000, his floating profit reached $5 million. His long position in PEPE with 10x leverage had a floating profit of as much as $23 million. The trading of TRUMP and FARTCOIN tokens contributed profits of about $5 million to $5.57 million and $4.3 million to $5.15 million, respectively.
As of May 24, James Wynn's total funds on Hyperliquid were approximately $55.8 million, compared to an initial position of $1.25 billion. His overall leverage ratio was about 22 times, meaning that once market fluctuations exceed 5%, he could face a full liquidation. Therefore, his trading style is categorized as high-risk, high-reward, which is not suitable for ordinary traders. Of course, considering that James Wynn had already made tens of millions of dollars in principal from MEMEs like PEPE, his positions were still within his risk control range. On May 24, James Wynn closed his position worth $1.2 billion, incurring a loss of about $13.39 million, and because of this huge loss, his overall earnings fell back to around $40 million.
Looking over James Wynn's crypto trading career, from being obscure to becoming a MEME leader, and then transforming again into a contract trading whale, his experience seems to fit people's imagination of a crypto wealth story. He also doesn't seem to want to be a low-key person; despite holding massive wealth, he remains active on social media. This level of exposure has indeed brought him benefits; during the MEME promotion period, he could use his influence to ensure that the MEME coins he invested in always had followers. During the contract trading phase, as market attention increased, James Wynn's actions also influenced some traders' market judgments to some extent, even creating a follow-up effect (though this influence may not be as pronounced as during the MEME coin period).
Overall, James Wynn's success seems to be a mixture of market timing, exceptional courage (or extreme risk-taking spirit), and strong self-marketing abilities. Ultimately, what James Wynn's 'rise to prominence' leaves the market may be more questions than answers. Is he a trading genius with keen insight, or just a lucky guy who caught the wave of the times? Is the next stop wealth or liquidation?
This is far from over; the crypto market has never been short of seasonal 'heroes,' but becoming a 'evergreen tree' still requires the test of time.
