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From '10u' War God to 1.2 billion contract whale: James Wynn's journey of reckless gambling.
#巨鲸JamesWynn动态
Recently, the former PEPE big shot has transformed into a contract whale, frequently opening contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars on Hyperliquid, attracting market attention. As one of the few whales who have publicly identified themselves and are active in the community on Hyperliquid, James Wynn's daily position changes have become a hot topic for many investors. What is the background of James Wynn, and how does he influence the entire market with his statements and positions?
The '10U War God' who rose to fame through PEPE.
According to James Wynn's self-description on Twitter, he was born in a 'forgotten small town' in the UK, where crime, drugs, alcohol, and poverty are rampant. James Wynn stated that he lived in dire straits from a young age, 'barely making ends meet every week.'
In 2022, after getting involved in cryptocurrencies, James Wynn became one of the '10 U War Gods'. He often floated between several ultra-small market cap MEMEs until he discovered PEPE on iToken. Subsequently, James Wynn chose to heavily invest in PEPE and thus made tens of millions of dollars. Previously, PANews verified this in another report on James Wynn based on on-chain data. (Related reading: Legendary Meme Coin Hunter James: Earned $25 million from $7,000, now the promotion effect fails)
From the information on social media, James Wynn joined Twitter in 2023, and almost all of his early content focused on promoting and advertising PEPE coins. In April 2023, James Wynn predicted that the market cap of the PEPE token would rise to $4.2 billion, while the market cap at that time was $4.2 million. A year later, this prediction not only came true but even exceeded his expectations at the time. In October 2024, PEPE's market cap peaked above $10 billion, becoming one of the highest market cap MEME coins.
Of course, during this process, as one of the largest holders of PEPE, James Wynn also gained huge profits. According to previous statistics from PANews, James Wynn's initial investment in PEPE was only $7,600, and by April 2024, his earnings had exceeded $25 million. Given that PEPE later rose again by about three times, James Wynn's total earnings may exceed $50 million.
Reputation damage after harvesting fans led to a transformation.
By 2024, with the successful creation of the PEPE persona, James Wynn's posts began to cover more MEME coins (such as BIAO, ANDY, WOLF), and he often published some new token contract addresses to promote them. In April 2024, James Wynn recommended a token called ELON and, in the following days, promoted it wildly as he did with PEPE. Meanwhile, James Wynn also quietly positioned himself in this token using several wallets. Under the highly influential recommendation, many community players began to follow and buy ELON. After the token skyrocketed a hundredfold, James Wynn claimed there were problems with the token and stated he had liquidated his holdings. This series of actions caused ELON's price to drop 70% in a short time, leaving many players buried in James Wynn's liquidation slide. Such operations severely damaged James Wynn's reputation in the community, and people began to realize that the MEME guru was not reliable.
Subsequently, James Wynn's content gradually began to shift from community promoter to investor and analyst. In the second half of 2024, he started to gradually focus on Bitcoin trends, market analysis, etc., and changed his Twitter name from 'James Wynn (The GOAT)' to the current 'James Wynn the Whale.'
1.2 billion dollar high leverage gamble
In March 2025, James Wynn officially shifted to Hyperliquid and deposited about $6 million for contract trading. In just two months, through high leverage operations on Hyperliquid, as of May 24, James Wynn increased his profits to around $48 million.
Especially in the past month, through frequent high leverage and large positions, James Wynn not only frequently placed his operations on the social media hot list but also once again proved his trading talent or luck with a monthly income 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 Bitcoin's price rose from $94,000 to $100,000, his floating profit reached $5 million. His 10x leveraged long position in PEPE had a floating profit of as much as $23 million. Trading in TRUMP and FARTCOIN tokens also contributed approximately $5 million to $5.57 million and $4.3 million to $5.15 million in profits, 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; under such leverage, if market fluctuations exceed 5%, he could face a full liquidation. Therefore, this 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 earned tens of millions of dollars in principal from PEPE and other MEMEs, his positions were within his risk control range. On May 24, James Wynn closed out his position worth $1.2 billion, incurring a loss of about $13.39 million. Due to this significant loss in the trade, his overall earnings also fell back to around $40 million.
Looking back at James Wynn's crypto trading career, from being unknown to becoming a MEME leader, to transforming again into a contract trading whale. James Wynn's experience seems to align most closely with people's imagination of crypto wealth stories. He also seems unwilling to be a low-profile person; despite holding immense wealth, he remains active on social media. This exposure has indeed brought him benefits; during the MEME promotion period, he could leverage his influence to ensure that the MEME coins he invested in always had followers. As the focus on contract trading increased, James Wynn's operations could also influence some traders' judgments about market trends, potentially creating a following effect (though this impact may not be as pronounced as during the MEME coin period).
Overall, James Wynn's success seems to be a mixed product of market timing, exceptional courage (or extreme risk-taking spirit), and strong self-marketing ability. Ultimately, the 'history of wealth' that James Wynn leaves for the market may raise more questions than answers. Is he a trading genius with unique insight, or just a lucky person who caught the wave of the times? Will his next stop be riches or liquidation?
This is far from over; the crypto market has never lacked periodic 'heroes', but becoming a 'evergreen tree' still requires the test of time.
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