How this trader racked up $46.5 million profits from leveraged crypto bets on Hyperliquid

A trader is getting attention from the crypto community for massive returns on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid. In a post on X, Lookonchain disclosed that the trader known as James Wynn has made up to $46.5 million in profits trading on the platform.

According to the post, Wynn generated these profits from just two months of trading by taking massive long positions on Bitcoin and several memecoins.

Presently, he has a 40x long position on Bitcoin, which he entered when the flagship asset was trading at around $94,000. With BTC now trading above $100,000, the trader has an unrealized profit of $5.4 million.

His other positions are mostly memecoins with 10x leverage long on PEPE and TRUMP and 5x long on FARTCOIN. The PEPE trade, which he entered at $0.00766, has been his biggest earner, with unrealized gains now at $23.8 million.

The massive returns are largely influenced by the amount of funding the trade, with the trader committing over $56.15 million worth of PEPE to the position while also putting over $57 million into the Bitcoin trade.

His smallest position is on HYPE, with only $6.2 million, which has generated over $31,000 in profits. With over $5 million each in gains on TRUMP and FARTCOIN, the trader currently has $39.92 million in unrealized profits.

However, the post has generated mixed reactions from many in the crypto community. While some have praised his trading acumen, many have criticized the post as a shill and accused the Wynn of being a scammer who launched and rugged a project in 2024.

One user said:

“@JamesWynnReal scammed people during last Summer. Launched a rug pull then disappeared for months. Be careful with following this guy.”

Others added that the X account tagged in the post has been shilling low-cap tokens and is currently promoting another project, leading to suggestions that he might be a crypto influencer who promotes projects.

Short traders continue to struggle as the crypto market retains gains

Despite the criticisms, Wynn’s massive gains, as highlighted in the post, reflect the recent surge in the value of crypto assets. Bull traders with long positions have benefited from the gains, while bears suffered massive liquidations.

The market recorded $879 million in liquidation on May 9, when BTC crossed $100,000 for the first time since February, and ETH saw a 20% increase in value. Most liquidations were short positions in BTC and ETH, with $329 million and $305 million, respectively.

While the rally has cooled, short traders continue to account for the most liquidations. According to Coinglass data, $285.36 million worth of positions have been liquidated for over 125,000 traders in the last 24 hours.

Shorts account for $167 million, while Longs have $118.34 million. Interestingly, Ethereum has the highest liquidation with $104.87 million, and short positions account for $66.63 million.

Despite the losses by short traders, many are still bearish. One whale recently deposited 17 million USDC ON Hyperliqud to short Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana with a 3x leverage. According to Lookonchain, they are already sitting on over $1.2 million in losses.

HYPE soars in value as Hyperliqud generates more activity

Meanwhile, one of the beneficiaries of the recent price volatility is Hyperliquid. The decentralized perpetual trading platform has continued to dominate trading volume and attract new users.

According to Defillama, Hyperliquid is the leading protocol for decentralized perps trading, accounting for 60% of trading volume in the last 24 hours with $9.259 billion. It has also seen $40.94 billion in volume in the last seven days and $1.416 trillion over its lifetime.

With Hyperliquid seeing massive volume, its token HYPE has also been performing well. It gained 20% in the past week and is up 81.11% in the last 30 days. However, its price of around $25 means it is still down 5% this year.

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