Who is the contract giant James Wynn?
Recently, the former PEPE big shot has transformed into a contract giant, frequently opening contracts with positions worth hundreds of millions of dollars on Hyperliquid, attracting market attention. As one of the few whales who publicly identifies and is 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 with PEPE
According to James Wynn's self-description 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 straits from a young age, 'barely making ends meet every week.'
In 2022, after getting involved in cryptocurrencies, James Wynn became a member of the 10 U War God. He often drifted between several ultra-small MEMEs until he later discovered PEPE on iToken. Subsequently, James Wynn chose to invest heavily in PEPE and made tens of millions of dollars as a result. Previously, PANews verified this in another report on James Wynn from the blockchain.
From the information on social media, James Wynn started joining Twitter in 2023, and nearly all of his early content focused on promoting and publicizing PEPE coin. In April 2023, James Wynn predicted that the market value of PEPE tokens 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 the time. In October 2024, the market value of PEPE surpassed 10 billion dollars, becoming one of the highest market value MEME coins.
Of course, in this process, as one of the largest holders of PEPE coins, James Wynn also gained huge profits. According to previous statistics from PANews, James Wynn's principal for trading PEPE was only 7,600 dollars, and by April 2024, his profits had exceeded 25 million dollars. Given that PEPE later rose again by about three times, James Wynn's total profits could exceed 50 million dollars.
Transforming after the reputation of harvesting fans was damaged
By 2024, with the successful creation of the PEPE god persona, James Wynn's posts began to touch on more MEME coins (such as BIAO, ANDY, WOLF), and he often published some new tokens' contract addresses to promote. In April 2024, James Wynn recommended a token named ELON and subsequently shouted out for it just like he did for PEPE.
At the same time, James Wynn also quietly laid out this token using several wallets. Under the strong recommendation, many community players began to follow and buy ELON. After the token rose a hundred times, James Wynn claimed that the token had issues and stated he had cleared his position in that token. This operation caused ELON's price to drop by 70% in a short time, and many players were buried in James Wynn's clearing slump. This operation seriously 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 began to gradually shift, moving from community promoter to investor and analyst. In the second half of 2024, he gradually shifted to Bitcoin trends, market analysis, and other aspects. He changed his Twitter name from 'James Wynn (The GOAT)' to the current 'James Wynn Whale.'
1.2 billion dollars in high-leverage holdings and a huge gamble
In March 2025, James Wynn officially shifted to Hyperliquid, depositing about 6 million dollars for contract trading. In just two months, through high-leverage operations on Hyperliquid, as of May 24, James Wynn had increased his profits to about 48 million dollars.
Especially in the past month, through frequent high leverage and large position investments, James Wynn not only frequently made his operations trend on social media 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 such as PEPE, TRUMP, and FARTCOIN. For example, on April 6, 2025, he went long on Bitcoin at an average price of 94,292 dollars with 40 times leverage; when the price of Bitcoin rose from 94,000 dollars to 100,000 dollars, his floating profit reached 5 million dollars. His 10 times leverage long position in PEPE had a floating profit of as high as 23 million dollars. Trading in TRUMP and FARTCOIN contributed profits of about 5 million to 5.57 million dollars and 4.3 million to 5.15 million dollars, respectively.
As of May 24, James Wynn's total funds on Hyperliquid were about 55.8 million dollars, compared to an opening position of 1.25 billion dollars. His overall leverage ratio was about 22 times, and under such leverage, if market fluctuations exceed 5%, he could face a full liquidation. Therefore, 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 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 his position worth 1.2 billion dollars, with a loss of about 13.39 million dollars, and due to the huge loss from this trade, his overall profits also fell back to around 40 million dollars.
Looking at James Wynn's crypto trading career, from anonymity to MEME leader, to transforming again into a contract trading giant. James Wynn's experience seems to align most closely with people's imagination of crypto wealth stories. He himself also seems unwilling to be a low-key person, remaining active on social media despite holding huge wealth. This exposure has indeed 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 lifting them up. As he shifted to contract trading, with increasing market attention, James Wynn's operations also to some extent influenced some traders' judgments about the market, potentially even creating a following effect (though this influence might not be as obvious as during the MEME coin period).
In general, James Wynn's success seems to be a product of a mix of market timing, exceptional courage (or extreme risk-taking), and strong self-marketing abilities. Ultimately, what James Wynn's 'history of wealth' leaves to the market may be more questions than answers. Is he a visionary trading genius, or merely a lucky one who seized the trend of the times? Is the next stop getting rich or facing liquidation?
This is far from over; the crypto market has never lacked temporary 'heroes,' but becoming a 'evergreen tree' still requires the test of time.
This article is co-published from: PANews
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