Crypto trader James Wynn refuses to leave the perps casino.
He continues to place large bets on the Hyperliquid perpetual futures exchange despite mounting losses.
In the last two weeks, Wynn deposited over $1.2 million into Hyperliquid. Through a series of highly leveraged trades, he lost almost the entirety of his deposits, getting liquidated nine times in the process.
He placed bets worth 10 times the amount he put in, trading Bitcoin, Ethereum, Pepe, and Doge.
Wynn’s liquidations come after the trader made audacious bets that have led to tens of millions of dollars in losses. Overall, he is down almost $22 million on a single wallet since he started trading on the platform.
When using leverage, the trader borrows money to place a bet larger than the amount he initially placed into the trade. If the trade goes in the wrong direction, the trader’s collateral is automatically sold by the exchange to cover the loss of the leveraged position.
James Wynn’s lore
Wynn originally gained a following on X for trading memecoins, making a public call for Pepe to hit a $4.2 billion market value when it was trading at only $4.2 million. Claiming to have made eight figures, he took his profits and turned to leverage trading.
While Wynn was relatively unknown at the time, he gained mainstream attention in May when he entered a highly leveraged Bitcoin long. During the month, he added to a $20 million position worth 40 times larger than the amount he put in.
The position reached a value of over $1 billion at the peak with an unrealised profit of over $100 million. However, shortly after the price of Bitcoin slid, triggering liquidations that led to a loss of $13 million.
Despite this, he continued trading with his remaining balance, eventually grinding the account down to essentially zero.
But that wasn’t the end.
Gains after fame
Throughout June and July, Wynn collected referral rewards, deposited more stablecoins into Hyperliquid, and opened a new account to continue trading.
According to data from lookonchain, a wallet analyser, Wynn opened a new account and deposited over $2 million, immediately opening leveraged long positions on Bitcoin and Pepe. These were liquidated within days and he ended up closing the account by withdrawing $137,000.
On July 15, Wynn deposited $466,000 from Binance into Hyperliquid, immediately placing $20 million worth of leveraged long positions on Bitcoin. Within hours, the position was partially liquidated, resulting in a loss of $46,000.
However, he kept the position open and eventually closed it in the green. Throughout the month, Wynn deposited a total of about $1.3 million into Hyperliquid, placing a mix of profitable and unprofitable trades. On July 20th, his account reached an unrealised profit of about $750,000.
“Shit’s about to get real this week. For the record, I’m overly exposed,” said Wynn on July 27.
That streak did not last long as within two days, his unrealised profits eroded to a loss of over $100,000. From then on, Wynn’s losses piled up as he was liquidated nine separate times in a row.
