James Wynn, a pseudonymous crypto trader who rose to online fame for turning meme coin bets into millions, has revealed he lost $100m in a matter of days after an aggressive string of leveraged trades on Hyperliquid.
Wynn, who first gained attention for turning a $7,000 position in the meme coin PEPE into over $25m, shared his story Friday on X.
In a candid post, he said he began trading perpetual futures in March, despite having no prior experience with derivatives. “I started trading on perps in March, had never traded perps before, in fact never really traded properly before. I’ve just traded meme coins,” he wrote.
I started trading on perps in March, had never traded perps before, in-fact never really traded properly before, I’ve just traded meme coins. (Before I was known for calling pepe at 600k and making 8 figures).
In one month I turned about $3m into $100m and then lost it all in…— James Wynn (@JamesWynnReal) June 6, 2025
From Meme Coins to Millions, Then Mayhem
That inexperience did not hold him back, at least initially. Within a month, Wynn said he turned a $3m position into $100m through a series of high-leverage trades.
His success, all trackable on-chain, attracted attention fast. His social media following ballooned as crypto traders scrambled to replicate or monitor his positions.
But the newfound visibility proved double-edged. Wynn admitted that the pressure of being in the spotlight warped his judgment.
“With all this new attention the trading spiraled out of control. I was basically gambling,” he said. “I got greedy. I wasn’t taking the numbers on the screen seriously.”
Transparency Made Wynn a Star—Then a Cautionary Tale
In mid-May, Wynn had amassed a $1.25b long position on Bitcoin, betting big at an average entry price of around $108,243.
The position, built with as much as 40x leverage, left little margin for error. When US President Donald Trump posted a tweet threatening tariffs on the European Union, global markets turned sharply. Bitcoin dipped below Wynn’s liquidation price, wiping out nearly his entire position in a series of cascading losses.
The rapid reversal shocked many in the crypto community, where Wynn had become a divisive figure. Some hailed him as a modern trading icon, while others accused him of reckless gambling or even market manipulation.
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