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From '10U' God of War to 1.2 Billion Contract Whale: The Crazy Gambling Journey of James Wynn
#巨鲸JamesWynn动态
Recently, the former PEPE big shot has transformed into a contract whale, frequently opening contracts with several hundred million USD positions on Hyperliquid, attracting market attention. As one of the few whales publicly identified and active in the community on Hyperliquid, James Wynn's daily position changes have become a hot topic for many investors. What background does James Wynn actually have, and how does he influence the entire market with his statements and positions?
The '10U God of War' who rose to prominence with PEPE
According to James Wynn's self-description on Twitter, he was born in a 'forgotten little town' in England, filled with crime, drugs, alcohol, and poverty. James Wynn stated that he lived in dire straits from a young age, 'barely making ends meet each week.'
In 2022, after coming into contact with cryptocurrencies, James Wynn became a member of the 10 U God of War. He often floated between several ultra-small MEMEs until he later discovered PEPE on iToken. Subsequently, James Wynn decided to heavily invest in PEPE and thus earned tens of millions of dollars. Previously, PANews verified this in another report on James Wynn through on-chain data. (Related reading: Legendary Meme Coin Hunter James: Turning 7,000 USD into 25 million USD, Now the Promotion Effect is Failing)
From social media information, James Wynn began joining Twitter in 2023, and almost all of his early content focused on promoting and publicizing PEPE. In April 2023, James Wynn predicted that the market value of PEPE tokens would rise to 4.2 billion USD, while the market value at that time was 4.2 million USD. A year later, this prediction not only came true but even exceeded his expectations at the time. In October 2024, PEPE's market value peaked above 10 billion USD, becoming one of the highest-valued 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 principal in PEPE trading was only 7,600 USD, and by April 2024, his earnings had exceeded 25 million USD. Given that PEPE later rose again by about three times, James Wynn's overall earnings might exceed 50 million USD.
Transitioning after damaging fan reputation
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 published some new tokens' CA for promotions. In April 2024, James Wynn recommended a token called ELON and, in the following days, promoted it frantically as he did with PEPE. Meanwhile, James Wynn quietly allocated this token using several wallets. Under this highly influential recommendation, many community players began to follow and buy ELON. After the token surged a hundredfold, James Wynn claimed that the token had issues and stated he had liquidated his position. This series of operations caused ELON's price to drop by 70% in a short time, and many players were buried in James Wynn's liquidation slump. Such operations 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 began to gradually shift, transitioning from a community promoter to an investor and analyst. In 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 Whale.'
1.2 Billion USD Position High-Leverage Gamble
In March 2025, James Wynn officially transitioned to Hyperliquid and deposited about 6 million USD to conduct 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 USD.
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 USD.
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 USD with 40x leverage; when Bitcoin's price rose from 94,000 USD to 100,000 USD, his floating profit reached 5 million USD. His PEPE long position with 10x leverage had a floating profit as high as 23 million USD. The trades of TRUMP and FARTCOIN contributed profits of approximately 5 million to 5.57 million USD and 4.3 million to 5.15 million USD, respectively.
As of May 24, James Wynn's total funds on Hyperliquid are approximately 55.8 million USD, compared to a position of 1.25 billion USD when opening. His overall leverage ratio is about 22 times, and at such a leverage level, if the market volatility exceeds 5%, he may face a comprehensive liquidation. Therefore, his trading style is high-risk, high-reward, and 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 earlier, his positions are within his risk control range. On May 24, James Wynn closed his position valued at 1.2 billion USD, incurring a loss of approximately 13.39 million USD. Due to this significant loss in the transaction, his overall profit also fell back to around 40 million USD.
Looking back at James Wynn's cryptocurrency trading career, from being obscure to becoming a MEME leader, and then transforming again into a contract trading whale. James Wynn's experience seems to fit people's imaginations of cryptocurrency wealth stories most closely. Furthermore, he does not seem to want 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 his invested MEME coins always had followers. By the time of the contract trading phase, as market attention increased, James Wynn's operations would, to some extent, influence some traders' judgments on the market, even forming a following effect (though this influence might not be as pronounced as during the MEME coin period).
Overall, James Wynn's success seems to be a mix of market timing, exceptional courage (or extreme risk-taking), and a strong self-marketing ability. Ultimately, what James Wynn's 'rise to wealth' leaves the market may be more questions than answers. Is he a visionary trading genius or merely a lucky individual who seized the zeitgeist? Is the next stop becoming incredibly wealthy or facing liquidation?
This is far from over; the cryptocurrency market has never lacked temporary 'tyrants,' but becoming a 'evergreen tree' still requires the test of time.
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