Author: Frank, PANews
Recently, the former PEPE big shot transformed into a contract whale, frequently opening positions worth hundreds of millions of dollars on Hyperliquid, which has drawn market attention. As one of the few whales with a public identity actively participating in the community on Hyperliquid, James Wynn's daily position changes have become a hot topic among many investors.
What is James Wynn's background, and how does he move the market's nerves with his statements and positions?
The "10U God" Who Rose to Fame with PEPE
According to James Wynn's own account on Twitter, he was born in a "forgotten small town" in the UK, filled with crime, drugs, alcohol, and poverty. James Wynn says he lived in hardship from a young age, "barely making ends meet" every week.
In 2022, after getting involved with cryptocurrencies, James Wynn became a 10U god. He often hovered around several ultra-small-cap memes until later discovering PEPE on iToken. Subsequently, James Wynn chose to heavily invest in PEPE and earned tens of millions of dollars. Previously, PANews had also verified this on-chain in another report about James Wynn. (Related reading: Legendary Meme Coin Hunter James: Earning $25 Million from $7,000, Now Shill Effect Fails)
From social media information, James Wynn started joining Twitter in 2023, and his early content was almost entirely focused on promoting and advertising PEPE. In April 2023, James Wynn predicted that PEPE token's market cap would rise to $4.2 billion. At the time, the market cap was $4.2 million. A year later, this prophecy not only came true but even exceeded his initial expectation. In October 2024, PEPE's market cap peaked at over $10 billion, becoming one of the highest-valued meme coins.
Of course, in this process, as one of PEPE's largest holders, James Wynn also gained enormous profits. According to PANews's previous statistics, James Wynn's initial investment in PEPE was only $7,600, and by April 2024, his earnings had exceeded $25 million. Given that PEPE subsequently rose by about 3 times, James Wynn's total earnings might exceed $50 million.
Reputation Damaged After Harvesting Fans, Then Pivoting
By 2024, with the successful establishment of his PEPE god persona, James Wynn's posts began to involve more meme coins (such as BIAO, ANDY, WOLF), and he would often publish new token contract addresses and shill. In April 2024, James Wynn recommended a token called ELON and subsequently shilled it frantically like he did with PEPE. Meanwhile, James Wynn also quietly positioned himself in the token using several wallets. Under his highly influential recommendation, many community players began to follow and buy ELON. After the token rose hundredfold, James Wynn claimed the token had issues and stated he had liquidated his position. This operation caused ELON's price to drop 70% in a short time, with many players buried in James Wynn's liquidation slope. This operation severely 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 gradually began to change, slowly transitioning from a community promoter to an investor and analyst. In the latter half of 2024, he began to focus more on Bitcoin trends and market analysis, changing his Twitter name from "James Wynn (The GOAT)" to the current "James Wynn Whale".
$1.2 Billion Position High-Leverage Gamble
In March 2025, James Wynn officially started trading on Hyperliquid, depositing about $6 million to trade contracts. In just two months, through high-leverage operations on Hyperliquid, he increased his profits to around $48 million by May 24th.
Especially in the past month, through frequent high-leverage and large-position investments, James Wynn not only frequently put his operations on social media's hot list but also proved his trading talent or luck with a single-month profit of $36 million.
His trading targets on Hyperliquid are surprisingly simple, mainly focusing on Bitcoin and a few meme coins like PEPE, TRUMP, and FARTCOIN. For example, on April 6th, 2025, he went long on Bitcoin at an average price of $94,292 with 40x leverage; when Bitcoin's price rose from $94,000 to $100,000, his floating profit reached $5 million. His 10x leverage long position on PEPE had a floating profit of up to $23 million. TRUMP and FARTCOIN token trades 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 on Hyperliquid were about $55.8 million, compared to his $1.25 billion position. His overall leverage ratio was about 22x, and at such a leverage rate, a market fluctuation exceeding 5% could lead to a complete liquidation. Therefore, this trading style belongs to a high-risk, high-return route, not suitable for ordinary traders. Of course, considering that James Wynn had already earned tens of millions of dollars from PEPE and other memes, his position was within his controllable risk range. On May 24th, James Wynn closed his $1.2 billion position, suffering a loss of about $13.39 million, which brought his overall earnings back to around $40 million.
Looking back at James Wynn's crypto trading career, from obscurity to MEME leader, to transforming again into a contract trading whale. James Wynn's experience seems to most closely match people's imagination of a crypto wealth story. He seems unwilling to be low-key, and despite holding massive wealth, remains active on social media. This exposure has indeed brought him benefits - during the MEME shill period, he could use his influence to ensure his invested MEME coins always had followers to prop them up. In the contract trading phase, as market attention grows, James Wynn's operations may to some extent influence some traders' market judgments and even form a follow trading effect (though perhaps not as obvious as during the MEME coin period).
Overall, James Wynn's success seems to be a mixture of market timing, extraordinary courage (or extreme adventurous spirit), and strong self-marketing ability. Ultimately, what James Wynn's "rise to wealth" leaves the market might be more questions than answers. Is he a trading genius with unique insight, or merely a lucky person who caught the wave of the times? Will his next stop be massive wealth or complete liquidation?
All of this is far from over. The crypto market has never lacked "heroes" of a certain stage, but becoming an "evergreen" still requires the test of time.
