“Gambling With a Timer”: James Wynn Returns to Hyperliquid With a 40x Bitcoin Short

James Wynn is back on Hyperliquid. The trader who turned $4 million into $87 million, then lost nearly all of it, has returned to the platform that made him infamous, this time with $3,911 scraped together from referral rewards and a 40x short on Bitcoin sitting $415 away from liquidation.

Bitcoin is currently trading at $70,697. His liquidation price is $71,112.

A History Worth Knowing

For those unfamiliar with Wynn, the backstory matters. By May 2025, he had built one of the largest publicly visible leveraged positions in crypto history – a $1.25 billion long on Bitcoin using 40x leverage on Hyperliquid. The position unraveled as prices dropped, resulting in losses exceeding $100 million. He ended the month with $23 in his account.

Before deactivating his X account, he changed his bio to a single word: “broke.”

He has since returned to Hyperliquid multiple times, depositing fresh capital and repeating the same pattern of high-leverage trades, each ending in liquidation.

Also Read: Ethereum News: Crypto Whale Loses $74M Longing ETH, Left With Just $8.5K on Hyperliquid

What He Just Did

On-chain analytics platform LookOnChain flagged the latest move on X. Wynn’s wallet – tracked publicly at 0x5078C2fBeA2b2aD61bc840Bc023E35Fce56BeDb6 on Hypurrscan – shows he claimed a referral reward of $1,654 USDC, deposited $3,911 USDC into Hyperliquid, and opened a 40x short on 2.69 BTC worth approximately $190,000. His liquidation price stands at $71,112.48

Gordon, founder of Crypto Crib, responded bluntly: “James Wynn is back after managing to claim $1,654 in referral rewards. Awful trader, no wonder he is BROKE.”

The reaction from the broader community was similarly unsympathetic.

Trader Joe, known as SelfSuccessSaga on X, wrote: “This is exactly how overleverage wrecks people every cycle. 40x short isn’t trading, that’s straight up gambling with a timer. One squeeze and that whole position gets wiped in seconds flat.”

The Numbers Don’t Lie

With Bitcoin at $70,697 at the time of writing and his liquidation price at $71,112, Wynn’s position requires Bitcoin to fall meaningfully to generate any profit. A move of just $415 to the upside wipes out his entire deposit.

The crypto community has watched this pattern play out before. The only question is whether this time ends differently or whether Hyperliquid’s on-chain data logs another liquidation under the wallet address the community has been tracking since May 2025.

Also Read: The Worst Week for Gold in 43 Years Just Made the Strongest Case for Bitcoin