James Wynn opens fresh $100M leveraged BTC position

James Wynn, the infamous risky leveraged trader, opened another $100M position with 40X leverage on Hyperliquid. The latest bid to lock in $1B in gains by going long on BTC immediately came under threat of liquidation. 

James Wynn, the high-risk whale on Hyperliquid, opened another $100M position with 40X leverage. This time, the liquidation price is $104,580, balanced just below the market price of BTC at $105,121. 

The recent trade is the second time Wynn is back on Hyperliquid, following claims that he would leave the perpetual futures casino behind. However, the pause lasts only hours before the next attempt at longing BTC.

Wynn opened a position just a couple of hours after announcing his exit from risky trading, once again boosting his social media presence. 

Less than an hour after Wynn opened his new leveraged position, the floating loss expanded to over $1M, once again facing liquidation. Counter-trading is the main factor behind Wynn’s inability to recoup his funds.

So far, Wynn has not taken profits and has allowed the positions to be liquidated. The floating loss at one point widened to $1.185M, though the metric can shift in minutes. 

Just before opening the new long position, Wynn also tapped his Hyperliquid HYPE token holdings. He unstaked 126K HYPE, selling them for $4.12M, with a net profit of $1.07M. On-chain watchers expected some of the proceeds would be used on the BTC market. 

Wynn sold the HYPE tokens at $32.70, but the asset recovered soon after, above $33. HYPE remains close to its peak of over $39, boosted by the growing activity on Hyperliquid. 

The James Wynn effect boosts Hyperliquid

The Wynn effect also boosted searches for “Hyperliquid,” reaching a three-month peak in May. Wynn has also used the platform to long PEPE and open smaller HYPE trades. The Hyperliquid activity is also used to boost a handful of meme tokens, most notably Moonpig, which Wynn continuously mentions amid his risky trades. 

The past 30 days also turned Hyperliquid’s native chain into one of the busiest networks. The network handled more than 364M transactions, linked to its perpetual futures trading. 

Top Chains by 30D Daily Transactions@HyperliquidX – 364M@dfinity – 215M@solana – 102M@base – 8.9M@trondao – 8.6M@BNBCHAIN – 7.8M@SuiNetwork – 5.5M@NEARProtocol – 5.3M pic.twitter.com/NjDyPmlmY5

— CryptoRank.io (@CryptoRank_io) May 31, 2025

For the entire month of May, Hyperliquid handled over $248M in perpetual futures. The perpetual futures DEX also reached a weekly record of over $80B, and a daily record of over $11B traded.

The presence of high-risk whales, some of which managed to take profits, is boosting interest in the DEX as a way to outperform an otherwise slower crypto market. Hyperliquid retains its high leverage, still attracting over 2,000 new users daily. 

Hyperliquid user growth has slowed in the first quarter of 2025, following the initial HYPE airdrop. However, active users are achieving higher volumes, as Hyperliquid is considered more reliable. After the recent growth, Hyperliquid ranked 14th among the most widely used blockchains, based on total value locked. 

The TVL reached $527.91M, doubling in the past two months. Hyperliquid aims to compete with centralized exchanges with growing open interest. The chain’s success mostly hinges on perpetual futures, as the network does not carry more than a handful of native tokens.

Cryptopolitan Academy: Coming Soon - A New Way to Earn Passive Income with DeFi in 2025. Learn More