Original Title: "Contract Whale James Wynn: From Slum to Encryption Big Player, $1.2 Billion Crazy Bet"

Original author: Frank, PANews

Recently, the former PEPE big shot has transformed into a contract Whale, frequently opening contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars on Hyperliquid, attracting the market's attention. As one of the few Whales with a public identity active in the community on Hyperliquid, James Wynn's daily position changes have become a focal point 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" built on PEPE

According to James Wynn's account on Twitter, he was born in a "forgotten little town" in the UK, filled with crime, drugs, alcohol, and poverty. James Wynn states that he lived in dire conditions from a young age, "barely making ends meet every week."

In 2022, after getting involved in cryptocurrency, James Wynn became a member of the 10 U War God. He often drifted between several ultra-small MEME coins until he later discovered PEPE on iToken. Subsequently, James Wynn chose to heavily invest in PEPE, earning tens of millions of dollars as a result. Previously, PANews verified this in another report about James Wynn through on-chain data. (Related reading: Legendary Meme Coin Hunter James: Made 25 million dollars from 7000 dollars, now the call effect has failed.)

According to information from social media, James Wynn started joining Twitter in 2023, and almost all of his early content focused on the promotion and publicity of PEPE coin. In April 2023, James Wynn predicted that the market value of the PEPE token 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 peaked at over 10 billion dollars, becoming one of the highest market value MEME coins.

Of course, during this process, James Wynn, as one of the largest holders of PEPE coins, also earned 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 could exceed $50 million.

Transforming After Damage to Reputation from Harvesting Fans

In 2024, with the successful creation of the PEPE god character, James Wynn's posts began to involve more MEME coins (such as BIAO, ANDY, WOLF), and he himself often released some new token CAs for shouting orders. In April 2024, James Wynn recommended a token called ELON and spent the following days bidding like he did when he recommended PEPE. At the same time, James Wynn has also quietly laid out the token with several wallets. Under the highly appealing recommendation, many community players began to follow up and buy ELON. When the token rose 100 times, James Wynn claimed that there was a problem with the token and said that he had liquidated the token. This wave of operations caused the price of ELON to drop by 70% in a short period of time, and many players were buried in James Wynn's clearance slide. This also led to serious damage to James Wynn's reputation in the community, and people began to realize that MEME gods were not reliable.

Subsequently, James Wynn's content gradually began to 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, market analysis, and so on. He changed his Twitter name from "James Wynn (The GOAT)" to the current "James Wynn Whale."

1.2 Billion Dollar High Leverage Bet

In March 2025, James Wynn officially transitioned to Hyperliquid, depositing 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 once again with a monthly profit of 36 million dollars.

His trading goals on Hyperliquid are surprisingly simple, with a focus on Bitcoin and a handful of meme coins like PEPE, TRUMP, and FARTCOIN. For example, on April 6, 2025, he went long Bitcoin with an average price of $94,292 and 40x leverage; When the price of Bitcoin rose from $94,000 to $100,000, its floating profit amounted to $5 million. And his 10x leveraged long position in PEPE has a floating profit of up to $23 million. THE TRADING OF TRUMP AND FARTCOIN TOKENS ALSO CONTRIBUTED ABOUT $5 MILLION TO $5.57 MILLION IN PROFITS AND $4.3 MILLION TO $5.15 MILLION IN PROFITS, RESPECTIVELY.

As of May 24, James Wynn's total funds at Hyperliquid were approximately $55.8 million, compared to the $1.25 billion in open positions. His overall leverage ratio is about 22 times, and with such leverage, once the market volatility exceeds 5%, it may face full liquidation. Therefore, his trading style belongs to the high-risk, high-return route and is not suitable for ordinary traders. Of course, considering that James Wynn has already earned tens of millions of dollars in principal on MEMEs such as PEPE, his position is also within the scope of his risk. On May 24, James Wynn closed his $1.2 billion position at a loss of about $13.39 million, and his overall gain fell back to around $40 million due to the huge loss on the deal.

Looking at James Wynn's encryption trading career, from being an unknown to the leader of MEME, and then transforming again into a contract trading Whale. James Wynn's experience seems to align most closely with people's imagination of the stories of wealth in encryption. 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 calling period, he could leverage his influence to ensure that the MEME coins he invested in always had followers boosting their value. As we moved into the contract trading phase, with increasing market attention, James Wynn's operations also began to influence some traders' judgment of the market conditions to a certain extent, even creating a follower effect (though this influence may not be as evident 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 strong self-marketing abilities. In the end, what James Wynn's "rags-to-riches story" leaves the market with may be more questions than answers. Is he a visionary trading prodigy or merely a lucky individual who seized the moment? Will his next stop be wealth or liquidation?

This is far from over; the encryption market has never lacked periodic "tycoons," but becoming a "evergreen" still requires the test of time.

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