Original Article Title: "Contract Whale James Wynn: From Slums to Crypto High Roller, A $1.2 Billion Wild Bet"

Original Article Author: Frank, PANews

Recently, the former PEPE big player has transformed into a contract whale, opening up contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars on Hyperliquid, causing a stir in the market. As one of the few whales with a public identity on Hyperliquid and active in the community, James Wynn's daily position changes have become a hot topic for many investors. What is James Wynn's background, and how has he been able to move the entire market's nerve with his statements and positions?

The "10U War God" Who Started with PEPE

According to James Wynn's self-description on Twitter, he was born in a "forgotten town" in the UK, where crime, drugs, alcohol, and poverty abound. James Wynn stated that he grew up in dire circumstances, barely making ends meet every week.

In 2022, after getting involved in cryptocurrency, James Wynn became a member of the 10U War Gods. He often lurked among several ultra low-cap MEME coins until he discovered PEPE on iToken. Subsequently, James Wynn chose to heavily invest in PEPE, earning tens of millions of dollars as a result. Previously, in another PANews article about James Wynn, this point was also verified on-chain. (Related Reading: Legendary Meme Coin Hunter James: Turned $7,000 into $25 Million, Now Calls for Pump Effect Failing)

From social media information, it can be seen that James Wynn joined Twitter in 2023, and most of his early content focused solely on promoting and publicizing the PEPE coin. In April 2023, James Wynn predicted that the market cap of the PEPE token would rise to $4.2 billion. At that time, the market cap was $4.2 million. A year later, this prophecy not only came true but even exceeded his original expectations. In October 2024, the PEPE market cap peaked at over $10 billion, becoming one of the highest-valued MEME coins.

Of course, during this process, as one of the largest holders of PEPE coins, James Wynn also received substantial gains. According to previous PANews statistics, James Wynn's principal in PEPE transactions was only $7,600, and by April 2024, his earnings had exceeded $25 million. Considering PEPE later rose again by about three times, James Wynn's total gains may exceed $50 million.

Fan Harvesting: Reputation Damage and Transformation

By 2024, with the successful establishment of the PEPE Guru persona, James Wynn's posts started to involve more meme coins (such as BIAO, ANDY, WOLF), and he himself often released CA (Coin Announcements) for new tokens, actively shilling them. In April 2024, James Wynn recommended a token called ELON and proceeded to shill it like he did with PEPE in the following days. Simultaneously, James Wynn quietly accumulated this token in several wallets. With his highly persuasive recommendations, many community players followed suit and bought ELON. After the token surged by a hundredfold, James Wynn claimed there were issues with the token and announced he had sold his holdings. This manipulation caused a short-term 70% drop in ELON's price, burying many players in James Wynn's sell-off landslide. Such actions severely damaged James Wynn's reputation in the community, leading people to realize that the Meme Guru was not reliable.

Subsequently, James Wynn's content gradually began to transform, shifting from a community promoter to an investor and analyst. In the latter half of 2024, he started focusing more on Bitcoin trends, market analysis, and other related topics. He also changed his Twitter handle from "James Wynn (The GOAT)" to the current "James Wynn Whale."

$12 Billion Position: High-Leverage Bet

In March 2025, James Wynn officially shifted his focus to Hyperliquid, depositing around $6 million for contract trading. In just two months, through high-leverage trading on Hyperliquid, as of May 24, James Wynn had increased his profits to approximately $48 million.

Especially in the past month, through frequent high-leverage trades and large capital injections, James Wynn not only frequently trended his own operations on social media but also, with a monthly profit of $36 million, once again demonstrated his trading talent or luck.

His trading targets on Hyperliquid were surprisingly simple, primarily focused on Bitcoin and a few meme coins such as PEPE, TRUMP, and FARTCOIN. For example, on April 6, 2025, he went long on Bitcoin with an average price of $94,292 and 40x leverage; when the price of Bitcoin rose from $94,000 to $100,000, his unrealized gains reached $5 million. His 10x leveraged long position on PEPE yielded even higher profits of $23 million. Trading of TRUMP and FARTCOIN tokens also contributed profits of approximately $5-5.57 million and $4.3-5.15 million respectively.

As of May 24th, James Wynn's total funds in Hyperliquid were approximately 55.8 million USD, compared to an opening position of 1.25 billion USD. His overall leverage ratio was about 22x, and with such leverage, a market swing of over 5% could lead to a full liquidation. Therefore, his trading style falls into the category of high-risk, high-reward, not suitable for the average trader. Of course, considering that James Wynn had already earned tens of millions of dollars in principal on MEME and other MEME coins, his position was within his risk tolerance. On May 24th, James Wynn closed his 1.2 billion USD position, incurring a loss of approximately 13.39 million USD. Due to this significant loss, his overall gains also dropped to around 40 million USD.

Looking back on James Wynn's crypto trading career, from obscurity to MEME leader, to transforming once again into a whale of contract trading. James Wynn's experience seems to fit people's imagination of a crypto wealth story the most. He himself also seems unwilling to be low-key, despite holding a huge amount of wealth, he is still active on social media. This exposure has indeed brought him benefits. During the MEME signal period, he could use his influence to ensure that there were always followers for the MEME coins he invested in. As the market's attention grew during the contract trading phase, James Wynn's actions to some extent would affect some traders' market judgments, and even lead to a follow-up effect (although this influence may not be as obvious as during the MEME coin period).

Overall, James Wynn's success seems to be a combination of seizing market opportunities, extraordinary courage (or extreme risk-taking spirit), and powerful self-promotion skills. In the end, what James Wynn's "rags-to-riches story" leaves to the market is perhaps more questions than answers. Is he a trading genius with unique insight, or just a lucky individual who caught the wave of the times, heading for wealth or liquidation?

All of this is far from over. The crypto market has always had its share of "tycoons" in different phases, but to become an "evergreen tree," it still needs the test of time.

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