Bitcoin: From 100M$ to 900$, James Wynn's new crash stuns the entire crypto market

Everything collapsed within a few hours. On the Hyperliquid platform, crypto trader James Wynn saw his account drop from 100 million dollars to just 900$, after short selling bitcoin with extreme leverage. Every transaction, every loss, every liquidation, was captured in real time and relayed by the on-chain tracker Lookonchain on X.

James Wynn loses almost everything after a Bitcoin liquidation

This Monday, April 6, 2026, trader James Wynn suffered his sixth forced liquidation within two weeks on the decentralized trading platform Hyperliquid. 

According to on-chain data compiled by Arkham and relayed by the tracker Lookonchain on X, his balance dropped from 100 million dollars to less than 900$. An almost total wipeout, public, and verifiable by anyone on the blockchain.

His strategy? Short sell bitcoin with 40x leverage. In other words, a rise of only 2.5% in the price is enough to trigger his liquidation. In the current context, this is a particularly risky position. 

Earlier this morning, bitcoin reached 69,350$, its highest of the week, driven by information suggesting a possible 45-day ceasefire between the United States and Iran, negotiated through Pakistan. Financial markets immediately reacted: the Nikkei rose, S&P 500 futures turned green, and bitcoin rose 3.5% on the day.

A “classic short squeeze,” according to Derek Lim of Caladan. More than 200 million dollars of short positions were liquidated in 24 hours across the entire crypto market, four times more than the long positions. Wynn was not the only one suffering, but he paid the most spectacular price.

From one billion dollars to 900$

James Wynn’s story fascinates as much as it frightens. In 2023, he detected the potential of $PEPE when its market cap was still under 600,000$, turning 7,600$ into 25 million dollars in profit. 

In May 2025, he opened the largest public Bitcoin position in history: 1.26 billion dollars notional value, with 11,588 BTC and 40x leverage.

Then everything flipped. Between May and June 2025, he reportedly lost nearly 100 million dollars in one month. Liquidations piled up: 9 in a few days in July, 45 over two months, and then again and again up to this Monday. By the end of March 2026, his count already showed 194 historic liquidations.

The size of his positions melted away like snow in the sun. Billion-dollar trades shrank to stakes between 44,000$ and 190,000$, sometimes funded by follower donations. Because after his 2025 setbacks, Wynn did indeed ask for contributions on X, causing an uproar in the crypto community. A controversy that accelerated his fall from grace: from legendary trader to emblematic cautionary tale.

In short, James Wynn’s case holds up a mirror to extreme leveraged trading: the same tools that make fortunes destroy them, often with surgical brutality. In a market where bitcoin climbs amid geopolitics and massive short squeezes, betting against the trend with 40x leverage is less trading than gambling. History remembers Wynn’s victories. The blockchain records everything else.