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• “James Wynn” has dominated conversations on cryptocurrency Twitter for risky Bitcoin bets.

• Wynn appeared unstoppable at first, but his victory lap was brief.

• The high-risk trader is not yet willing to throw in the towel.

A popular saying goes, “Quit while you’re ahead.” For “James Wynn,” however, this likely means nothing.

The pseudonymous cryptocurrency trader who rose to prominence for catching Pepe early in 2023 grabbed headlines in May for a $1 billion long bet on Bitcoin on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, using 40x leverage.

What could go wrong? Well… everything. But it was not apparent at first.

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At first, it seemed like the market could not go against Wynn. Bitcoin surged to record highs above $110,000 and Wynn’s unrealized profit swelled to $100 million.

“People see the trades and think it’s some high-level stupid gambling kind of thing, and yes it is,” Wynn said at the time. “But it is backed by my own thesis, which in turn, is a calculated risk.”

Wynn doubled down by opening similar leverage positions on memecoins like Pepe, TRUMP and FARTCOIN, betting that Bitcoin would go higher.

“Bitcoin is dying to breakout higher. My target remains the same of 115-118k by the end of next week. However, could easily happen within a matter of hours even,” he said.

But this prediction failed to materialize. Bitcoin instead began to retreat from its highs and Wynn’s high-risk positions unraveled spectacularly, turning a $100 million paper profit into a $17.5 million total account loss.

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“I’ve decided to give perp trading a break,” Wynn said in the aftermath. “Its been a fun ride. Approx $4m into $100m and then back down to a total account loss of $17,500,000. The time has come for me to return to where I came from. The place that helped carve me into the gigantic degenerate I’am today.”

Wynn’s hiatus did not last long. He was back on Monday asking his followers for donations to “fight the market making cabal,” promising full refunds, presumably after beating this supposed cabal. It is unclear what victory in this fight will look like.