- James Wynn’s $491M BTC long position unraveled due to 62.81x leverage and zero hedging, triggering a $100M liquidation.
- Partial BTC exits totaling $2.3M in losses were briefly delayed but failed to prevent forced liquidation amid steep margin overexposure.
- Arkham confirmed a $100M BTC liquidation executed in 2 minutes as BTC price dipped below Wynn’s final buffer of just $1,000.
Bitcoin’s sharp drop has triggered a major liquidation of a $491 million long position held by trader James Wynn, who had once sat on $87 million in unrealized profits. A chain of high-leverage exposures and insufficient risk controls left the account vulnerable, resulting in a reported $100 million liquidation.
According to a post by Lookonchain, Wynn’s wallet held 4,604 BTC in a single leveraged long position with a 62.81x exposure. Unrealized losses crossed $7.4 million before liquidation, erasing prior gains. The wallet held no spot BTC, no withdrawable assets, and no short hedges, fully committing all capital to the long perpetual.
The trading dashboard snapshot showed the liquidation price at $106,338, barely $280 below the BTC market price of $106,619 at the time. Wynn’s margin usage spiked to 157.02%, indicating severe overexposure beyond safe leverage thresholds. Unrealized PnL dropped to -$7.49 million, reflecting a crushing -60.98% ROE.
Partial Exits Fail to Prevent Collapse
In an apparent effort to reduce liquidation risk, Wynn closed ten blocks of roughly 93 BTC each, all at heavy losses. According to Lookonchain’s second report, six exits on May 30 between 12:07–12:09 AM incurred $935,800 in losses and over $14,300 in fees. These were preceded by four exits on May 29, totaling another $1.4 million loss.
Despite these defensive moves, liquidation was narrowly avoided only temporarily. The liquidation price was lowered to $105,738, but BTC’s decline toward $104,700 sealed the trader’s fate. The realized losses of $2.3 million were compounded by $663,444 in funding fees and a portfolio-wide drawdown of over -53.65% ROE.
Arkham Confirms $100M Liquidation as DeFi-Routed Assets Vanish
Arkham Intelligence confirmed Wynn’s final liquidation, citing a $100 million BTC contract wipeout executed within two minutes. The collapse coincided with a 3.14% BTC price crash from $105,068 to $104,743, driven by aggressive sell-side pressure and thin order books. Wynn’s long bet was eliminated as prices moved just $1,000 past the final liquidation threshold.
The wallet’s residual value plummeted to $25,080.23, with holdings split between ETH, USDC, and smaller altcoins like PEPE. Arkham reported a 4.2% portfolio decline following Wynn’s cascading loss. Despite a history of high-frequency trades routed through Binance and Hyperliquid, no new inflows or hedges appeared before liquidation.
Critics Split Over Wynn’s Leverage Play
Analyst WforCrypto commented that Wynn “roundtripped so hard and ended up net negative,” suggesting ego and clout-chasing led to revenge trading. Others highlighted the absence of hedging tools and poor exit timing as core failures. Still, some defended the strategy as a calculated risk gone wrong amid unusual volatility.
Market observers agree that Wynn’s exposure entirely in long BTC perps was a textbook example of risk concentration. The liquidation emphasized how quickly leveraged positions can disintegrate in a volatile crypto ecosystem, even with automated routing and diversified wallet flows in place.
