Crypto Trader James Wynn Admits to Spiraling After $100M Wipeout in 30 Days

Another high-stakes crypto gamble goes spectacularly wrong—this time with a nine-figure price tag.

When the market moves, it moves fast. And for James Wynn, it moved $100 million in the wrong direction.

Wynn’s confession reads like a cautionary tale for the leverage-happy crowd: one bad month, one blown-up portfolio, and one very expensive lesson in risk management.

Wall Street veterans would’ve seen this coming—but in crypto, hubris still pays… until it doesn’t.

From Meme Coins to Millions, Then Mayhem

That inexperience did not hold him back, at least initially. Within a month, Wynn said he turned a $3m position into $100m through a series of high-leverage trades.

His success, all trackable on-chain, attracted attention fast. His social media following ballooned as crypto traders scrambled to replicate or monitor his positions.

But the newfound visibility proved double-edged. Wynn admitted that the pressure of being in the spotlight warped his judgment.

“With all this new attention the trading spiraled out of control. I was basically gambling,” he said. “I got greedy. I wasn’t taking the numbers on the screen seriously.”

Transparency Made Wynn a Star—Then a Cautionary Tale

In mid-May, Wynn had amassed a $1.25b long position on Bitcoin, betting big at an average entry price of around $108,243.

The position, built with as much as 40x leverage, left little margin for error. When US President Donald Trump posted a tweet threatening tariffs on the European Union, global markets turned sharply. Bitcoin dipped below Wynn’s liquidation price, wiping out nearly his entire position in a series of cascading losses.

The rapid reversal shocked many in the crypto community, where Wynn had become a divisive figure. Some hailed him as a modern trading icon, while others accused him of reckless gambling or even market manipulation.