High-profile crypto trader James Wynn has reactivated his Hyperliquid account on October 14-15, 2025, after months of inactivity and public criticism of the platform. He deposited 197,000 USDC and claimed a $2,818 referral reward before opening $4.8 million in leveraged long positions across Bitcoin (BTC), PEPE, and HYPE, according to Lookonchain data.
Wynn allocated $3.85 million to Bitcoin using 40x leverage, controlling approximately 34.2 BTC with notional exposure of around $154 million. This extreme leverage means a 2.5% adverse price movement could liquidate the position. He also placed $917,000 on PEPE at 10x leverage (122.8 million tokens) and $28,000 on HYPE at 10x leverage (712.67 tokens).
His return follows a period of significant losses in May 2025, where he lost around 949 BTC in leveraged futures trades, reducing his wallet balance to just over $10,000. Wynn had deactivated his X account and changed his bio to "broke" in July, but his comeback coincides with market recovery from a tariff-driven crash that saw Bitcoin fall from an all-time high of $126,000 to around $112,000.
Despite previously criticizing Hyperliquid for inadequate referral rewards and technical issues while promoting competitor Aster, Wynn's reentry highlights his high-risk trading style. In March 2025, he famously turned $3 million into $100 million in one month using similar leverage. His 2023 PEPE prediction, when the meme coin's market cap was $4.2 million, proved accurate as it peaked above $10 billion in 2024, generating over $25 million in profits from a $7,600 investment.
