In crypto buying and selling, the promise of huge beneficial properties usually comes with the danger of heavy losses. Through the years, a number of high-profile crypto merchants have made headlines for his or her daring bets, solely to see their fortunes crumble when the market turned in opposition to them.
From Bitcoin (BTC) to Ethereum (ETH), the crypto market has confirmed to be a double-edged sword. Tens of millions might be made or misplaced in simply hours, and merchants are left to cope with the fallout from their high-risk strikes. Listed here are the tales of three crypto merchants who worn out tens of millions:
James Wynn
James Wynn, a pseudonymous dealer on Hyperliquid, has grow to be probably the most mentioned figures on crypto Twitter (now X) as a consequence of his high-risk, high-reward buying and selling fashion.
Wynn began buying and selling on Hyperliquid in March 2025. He amassed vital income via his daring buying and selling methods.
“Since I started buying and selling this 12 months on HyperLiquid I’ve made a complete revenue of $41,696,589.75 (on-chain). Subsequent aim is $1bn. Not for the cash. However for the legacy. Unlikely I’ll do it this cycle until I went max degen on shorting the highest, which I’m most likely the one individual with this type of wealth who’s prepared to show it up on 40x leverage and put a big % on the road,” Wynn mentioned on Could 9.
The dealer had a number of profitable trades. On Could 24, he booked a $25.18 million revenue from a protracted place in kPEPE and $16.89 million from a protracted Bitcoin place. Different notable trades included a $4.84 million revenue from Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) on Could 13 and a $6.83 million revenue from Official Trump (TRUMP) on Could 12.
Wynn’s income peaked at over $87 million in late Could. Nevertheless, this was short-lived, because the trades started to backfire quickly after. Wynn confronted a collection of great setbacks.
On Could 23, he misplaced $3.69 million from a protracted Ethereum place and $1.59 million from a Sui (SUI) lengthy place. Two days later, on Could 25, he suffered a $15.86 million loss from a brief place in BTC.
“James Wynn has worn out virtually all his income on Hyperliquid. It took him 70 days to go from 0 to $87 million+ in revenue, and solely 5 days to lose virtually all of the $87 million+ in revenue,” Lookonchain posted on Could 28.
Regardless of shedding all of it, Wynn’s bets continued. The most important blow got here on Could 30, when a protracted BTC place resulted in a lack of $37.41 million. Wynn’s losses prolonged into Could 31, with a further $1.20 million misplaced from one other BTC lengthy place.
Lastly, on June 5, Wynn misplaced $2.81 million on a BTC lengthy place, bringing his complete losses to $20.4 million.
“I closed my place. Defeated accepted. MM’s 1-0 Wynn,” he acknowledged.
James Wynn Hyperliquid Losses. Supply: Hyperdash
On the time of writing, Wynn’s efficiency confirmed a win price of 40.48%, with 17 profitable trades out of 42.
Nameless ETH Whale
Wynn’s downfall is a component of a bigger pattern, with different crypto merchants additionally shedding tens of millions. In March 2025, an nameless cryptocurrency dealer, recognized by the pockets deal with 0xf3F496C9486BE5924a93D67e98298733Bb47057c, suffered a staggering $308 million loss after a 50x leveraged lengthy place on ETH was liquidated.
The dealer had opened the place when ETH was buying and selling at $1,900, with a liquidation value of $1,877. Nevertheless, amid heightened market volatility pushed by international tariff issues, ETH’s value plummeted, liquidating 160,234 ETH.
An Nameless Dealer’s 160,234 ETH Liquidation. Supply: Hypurrscan
Lookonchain reported that the whale had rotated all their Bitcoin holdings into this leveraged ETH commerce, amplifying the danger.
“Loopy! This whale has switched all of his lengthy BTC positions to lengthy ETH,” the put up learn.
Leveraged buying and selling, which makes use of borrowed funds to enlarge each beneficial properties and losses, proved disastrous on this case, as a small value motion worn out the dealer’s complete place.
In the meantime, the dealer has not opened any positions on Hyperliquid since late March.
Hui Yi
Whereas leveraged bets have led to huge monetary losses, they’ve additionally tragically resulted within the lack of life. In June 2019, Hui Yi, the co-founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency market evaluation platform BTE.TOP reportedly took his personal life.
Yi’s misery was believed to be brought on by his involvement in a failed 100x leveraged quick place on 2,000 Bitcoins. The intense leverage amplified his losses, making his place extremely weak to even minor value fluctuations.
There was additionally hypothesis that the two,000 Bitcoins may need belonged to purchasers. Some even urged that Yi might have faked his dying to keep away from reimbursement. Nevertheless, no proof supported these theories.
An ex-partner confirmed Yi’s dying. This tragic incident highlighted the psychological toll of leveraged buying and selling and the risks of utilizing extreme borrowed funds within the unstable crypto market.
