Crypto Investor Wynn, Who Staked $1B on BTC, Faces $118M Liquidation During Price Drop

The cryptocurrency trader known as James Wynn, who invested over $1 billion in bitcoin (BTC) approximately a week ago, is experiencing significant losses amounting to more than $118 million. This happened after bitcoin’s price fell below $105,000 early on Friday.

Data from Arkham Intelligence indicates that Wynn has faced liquidations on four separate positions, totaling 1,134 BTC (around $118.8 million). He still maintains an open position with 40x leverage on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, which currently represents an unrealized loss of $4.7 million.

Wynn had escalated his leveraged long position in Bitcoin from $390 million to $1.1 billion in just a week. Renowned for his high-risk trading style and interest in meme coins, he consistently raised his bets as the price of bitcoin increased.

When BTC reached an all-time high (ATH) of $111,970 on May 22, the value of his bet surged to $1.14 billion, with an unrealized profit exceeding $39 million. By May 24, he had amplified his position to $1.25 billion, even as bitcoin began to decline from its peak and was consolidating around $108,000 to $109,000.

Despite expectations from analysts and on-chain data suggesting that BTC could continue to climb in the near term, shifts in the macroeconomic landscape led to a downturn in its price.

After taking some profits from his initial BTC investment, Wynn had anticipated that the asset could reach a target of $115,000 to $118,000 within the week. Unfortunately, the reality was different, as bitcoin dropped 2.5% over the last day and was trading around $105,093 at the time of reporting.

Due to the recent dip in bitcoin’s value, Wynn has faced liquidations on four positions, which included holdings of 91 BTC ($9.7 million), 527 BTC ($55.3 million), 421 BTC ($43.9 million), and 95 BTC ($10 million). According to Hyperliquid’s analytics, these liquidations occurred when BTC reached prices of $106,330, $104,950, $104,150, and $104,620, respectively.

Following his liquidations, Wynn expressed his concerns on social media, arguing that his trading strategy has highlighted corruption within the crypto markets. He suggested that a better approach would be to buy and hold BTC securely rather than adopt a highly leveraged strategy.