Hyperliquid Trader James Wynn Bleeds $1.28M in July—A Cautionary Tale of Crypto Leverage
Another day, another seven-figure crypto wreck. Hyperliquid trader James Wynn just joined the hall of shame—torching nearly all of his $1.28M July deposit in what looks like a classic leverage meltdown.
When 'Risk On' Goes Wrong
No details on whether this was a futures misstep or an ill-timed altcoin gamble. But let's be real—when you're playing with perpetual swaps and 50x leverage, the market doesn't need reasons to liquidate you.
The Aftermath
Wynn's case hits different because of the scale: $1.28M isn't pocket change, even for degen standards. Yet somehow, the crypto casino keeps finding players willing to bet the farm—and losing it faster than a meme coin's hype cycle.
Remember folks: in crypto, the house always wins. Especially when that 'house' is a decentralized protocol with zero sympathy for your blown-up account.
James Wynn loses on PEPE bets
Following several BTC and ETH liquidations, James Wynn switched his attention to PEPE. The early meme token, Pepe gained 16.3% in July, but failed to go vertical.
PEPE has been sliding in the second half of the month, trading at $0.000011. The lack of a decisive rally led to multiple partial liquidations. On-chain data reveals James Wynn was liquidated a total of nine times on his PEPE positions, losing another $25,000.
The PEPE position was relatively minor compared to previous bets on the direction of BTC and ETH, but James Wynn tried to boost the social media profile of the meme token. The trader has a long history with PEPE, becoming an early adopter while the token had a $600M market cap.
Hyperliquid still attracts star whales
Star whales like James Wynn and Aguila Trades have become the key to Hyperliquid’s success. The model of James Wynn has also been copied by The WHITE Whale, another top-ranked Hyperliquid trader. In addition to opening public positions, The White Whale is active on social media, with potential effect on asset prices.
That moment you realize that single-handedly you are 15% of all OI for SOL on Hyperliquid. Guess it makes sense why price is being suppressed. Not sure who needs to hear this but you aren't going to shake my conviction and trick me into selling before I'm good and ready.
— The White Whale (@TheWhiteWhaleHL) July 29, 2025
The perpetual futures DEX expanded its open interest to over $15B, of which $8B goes toward blue-chip assets, and the remainder to new hot tokens. HYPE is among the most active markets, but Hyperliquid has quickly gathered whales for new listings like PUMP.
Despite the most recent BTC slide to $117,000, Hyperliquid managed to hold up. HYPE stabilized around $43.07, down from its peak of just under $50. For now, HYPE has not managed a rally to three-digit prices and failed to clear the $50 barrier, but is still up over 8% in July.
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