Original | Odaily ([@OdailyChina](https://x.com/OdailyChina))
Author | Azuma ([@azuma_eth](https://x.com/azuma_eth))
Who is the most notable trader in the current market? Hyperliquid whale James Wynn might just take the crown.
After consecutively opening two "epic-scale positions" in both long and short directions, totaling over $1 billion (long positions exceeding $1.2 billion, short positions over $1 billion, both now closed), this trader with Bruce Lee as his avatar has become the focus of discussion in the cryptocurrency market.
So who exactly is James Wynn? Where does his massive capital come from? What notable achievements has he had in the past? What are his next steps after the super short position was stopped out? Odaily will attempt to gradually unveil James Wynn's mysterious persona in the following text.
Beginning: A Crypto Genius from a Small Town
According to James Wynn's recent disclosure, he comes from a "shitty town" in England.
James Wynn describes that "no one can leave there, it's filled with knife crime, drugs, alcohol, and poverty..."But just like the protagonist in "Slumdog Millionaire" who turned his life around through a TV show, James Wynn changed his life through cryptocurrency.
Entering the Scene: MEME "God of War" or "Alameda Shadow"?
"I was born in the trenches."
This is James Wynn's description of his early trading experience —— Before becoming wealthy through PEPE (to be detailed in the next section), James Wynn's trading style was frequently trading small-cap meme tokens, making 2x here, 4x there...
However, community members have dug up some different clues.
Although James Wynn's X account was registered in April 2023,his associated address seems to have received funding from the notorious Alameda Research in 2020.
Currently, searching "Who is James Wynn" on X reveals many speculations about James Wynn's relationship with Alameda Research, with some even believing James Wynn is a "shell puppet" of Alameda Research...
However, Odaily has not found the specific funding transaction (seemingly not from the main address), and there is currently no definitive evidence of James Wynn's relationship with Alameda Research, so this point remains questionable.
Rise: Becoming Famous with PEPE
James Wynn's most famous achievement is undoubtedly buying PEPE at an extremely early stage and achieving a "big result" —— According to James Wynn's profile description, when he first purchased PEPE, the token's market cap was only $600,000, and now it's around $5.7 billion.
On April 17, 2023, James Wynn posted a famous tweet when PEPE's market cap was only $4.2 million, predicting the token would eventually break $4.2 billion, which has long been achieved.
Due to differences in statistical calibration (mainly because of scattered addresses), there are various opinions about how much James Wynn exactly earned from PEPE spot trading (with later contract profits as well), but he has confirmed his comprehensive profit exceeded $10 million.
Onchain Lens detected a transaction in March this year where "a James Wynn associated address transferred 38.918 billion PEPE to Binance", and at that time, the institution estimated that James Wynn's associated addresses had accumulated over $16 million in profits on PEPE.
Controversy: Paid Signaling, Reputation Damaged
As PEPE continued to rise, James Wynn's fame increased, but controversies followed.
In July 2024, overseas KOL Dylan exposed James Wynn's controversial behavior in a MEME project called Baby Pepe —— James Wynn publicly opposed paid promotion but privately contacted the Baby Pepe team, demanding 2% of token supply and promising to push the token's market value to $20 million. However, James Wynn subsequently sold tokens for $68,000 in profit and blocked the team.
Dylan was furious with James Wynn, directly calling him a "scammer" and "criminal".
Peak: Moving to HyperLiquid
As time moves to 2025, perhaps due to continuous wealth accumulation, James Wynn's focus has gradually shifted from the MEME market to the contract trading market with larger capital capacity.
In recent months, James Wynn has frequently traded on the decentralized contract trading market Hyperliquid, with trading assets including BTC, ETH, and popular MEME tokens like PEPE, TRUMP, FARTCOIN, AIXBT —— his PEPE long position alone has profited about $25.18 million.
Last week, James Wynn even opened a position against the famous "50x insider whale", with James Wynn going long while the "insider" went short. Eventually, with BTC breaking to a new high, James Wynn had the last laugh.
Then came the "epic long and short positions" that caught the industry's attention —— James Wynn successively opened a $1.2 billion long position on Hyperliquid (opened in multiple batches, with the last batch losing $13.39 million, but still overall profiting about $8.45 million), and then turned to open a $1 billion short position, a scale that shocked the entire market.
The well-known chain analyst "AI Aunt" recently counted James Wynn's 12 large transactions on Hyperliquid in the past month, details can be seen in the following image.
Conclusion: Hanging Up the Gloves
Early this morning from 6:09 to 6:15, James Wynn stopped loss and closed his $1 billion BTC short position, totaling 9,402 BTC, using 40x leverage, with an average opening price of $107,069 and closing price of $108,757, realizing a loss of about $15.86 million.
Although this short was ultimately stopped out, Hypurrscan data shows that James Wynn's overall trading profit on Hyperliquid over several months still exceeds $25.109 million.
This morning at 9:33, James Wynn posted a summary of his contract trading results, seemingly announcing his exit from the contract market. According to James Wynn's disclosure, his contract account started from around $3-4 million, peaked with an unrealized profit of $87 million, and now decides to take profits and exit, ultimately accumulating a profit of $25 million.
Shortly after, James Wynn withdrew 28 million USDC from Hyperliquid, officially announcing his phased exit.
Self-Assessment: Calm as Still Water
Regarding James Wynn's trading style, the market has mixed opinions.
Some believe he is bold and meticulous, absolutely a rare trading genius; but others think his public position-opening behavior is unwise and might make him a target for sniping.
Another well-known trader Eugene commented today that James Wynn's public establishment of an extremely large position is quite controversial, and from experience, this is almost always a bad idea, with its negative externalities often outweighing the positive effects.
As for James Wynn himself, he seems to have not been overly affected by external comments - in today's tweet suggesting his withdrawal, James Wynn mentioned that he "had a lot of fun gambling".
And last night, James Wynn also quoted a famous saying by Bruce Lee (it's clear he really likes him), seemingly describing his current state of mind.
"Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. Water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend!"
