How a Hyperliquid whale lost $100m on leveraged Bitcoin bet

The crypto trader who goes by James Wynn caught the attention of the crypto community after making a bullish bet on Bitcoin worth over $1 billion last week on the decentralised exchange, Hyperliquid.

What happened next was eye-popping.

Wynn put $20 million at stake initially, and borrowed funds to place a bet 40 times larger than his initial investment, as shown on Hyperdash, a tool that tracks Hyperliquid traders

As the price of Bitcoin hit a new all-time high, his unrealised profits reached approximately $100 million.

Calamitous drop

But then Bitcoin’s price dropped more than 6%, to $105,000, after President Donald Trump on May 23 said the US was poised to slap 50% tariffs on imports from the European Union.

The markets took the development badly.

Bitcoin’s slide triggered two major liquidations, totalling 949 Bitcoin or about $100 million.

Meanwhile, the market value of Wynn’s memecoin, Moonpig, dropped 80%, to less than $20 million.

One trader took advantage of Wynn’s brinkmanship by shorting Bitcoin and Ether when Wynn went long, and conversely going long when Wynn went short.

Within the last week, this trader is up about $17 million, Hyperdash data shows.

Despite the massive swing, Wynn appears to be unfazed.

Perps casino

“The perps casino was fun. Zero regrets. Flipping $4m to $100m and back down to -$13m is one hell of a thrill. Hope many of you enjoyed it as much as I did,” Wynn said on Friday.

With a portfolio value of about $2 million, Wynn has not given up just yet.

On Friday, he opened up leveraged long positions on Pepe and Bitcoin, placing just over $1 million into each trade.

The losses continue to pile up with these positions saddled with an unrealised decline of more than $1 million.

Zachary Rampone is a DeFi correspondent at DL News. Have a tip? Contact him at zrampone@dlnews.com.