A crypto whale has expanded an existing 40x leverage long Bitcoin bet to $1.1 billion

By expanding an existing 40x leverage long Bitcoin bet to $1.1 billion, a crypto whale has stunned the crypto community.

A crypto whale has expanded an existing 40x leverage long Bitcoin bet to $1.1 billion on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, which has stunned the crypto community and is believed to be the first-ever position exceeding $1 billion on the platform.

The X account "James Wynn" claims to be behind the position, which is now up $36 million on the trade, data from Hypurrscan’s block explorer shows.

A $28.4 million margin position was used across several trades to increase the Bitcoin (BTC) position, now valued at $1.13 billion. The average Bitcoin entry price was $108,065.

"He did it fellas," crypto analyst Sigma^2 wrote on X. "First position [on Hyperliquid] to exceed $1B."

Wynn's long position was at a loss of about $16.3 million before it shot back up as Bitcoin broke through $110,000 on May 21. The position sits comfortably above its liquidation price of $103,790, as Bitcoin has well surpassed $110,000 and neared $112,000 in early trading on May 22.

HyperDash data shows the crypto whale started closing some Bitcoin long positions when Bitcoin was trading around $106,000 on May 20.

"That mfer has nerves of steel," crypto influencer Follis wrote, while others called the trader an "absolute mad man" or questioned his sense in making the trade.

Who is "James Wynn"?

Wynn describes himself as a high-risk leverage trader and memecoin maxi who supposedly called Pepe (PEPE) a buy when its market cap was at $600,000.

The crypto whale started using Hyperliquid two months ago, depositing $4.65 million worth of the stablecoin USDC (USDC) into the platform, Hypurrscan data shows.

They've completed 32 trades since then, which have included long positions on XRP (XRP), the Official Trump (TRUMP) token, Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) and Toncoin (TON).

Hyperliquid's DEX is the flagship product on the Hyperliquid layer 1 blockchain, which also offers spot trading and borrowing and lending services, among other things.