Leverage trading has been quite the talk of the town lately. While it promises significant gains – for some, it serves as a frying pan. With leverage trading, many crypto traders manage to turn thousands into millions in just hours. But it is a double edged sword; the fortunes can be lost just as fast even by top trading gurus. 

In several instances, leverage trading in the crypto space has highlighted how risky the market is. Let’s explore a few instances where crypto traders have lost millions via leverage trading. 

James Wynn – The Rise and Fall of the Hyperliquid 40x Leverage Daredevil

Back in March 2025, James Wynn burst into the spotlight with his high leverage crypto trades on Hyperliquid. From a series of risky bets, he managed to accumulate up to $41 million in profits. However, Wynn claimed that he was not doing it for the money, but rather, the legacy. Three months later, Wynn’s legacy – though not the kind he had envisioned – lives on and will continue to do so for a while. But what happened? Let’s run it back!

On May 9 2025, James Wynn took to X (formerly Twitter) to post what he claimed to be a motivational tweet for his audience. He highlighted how he made $41,696,589.75 since he began trading on Hyperliquid in 2025. But he did not stop there; he further explained how he wanted more and more for himself since becoming a millionaire. And this time round, he wanted to push his crypto profits to $1 billion. 

“Next goal is $1bn. Not for the money. But for the legacy. Unlikely I’ll do it this cycle unless I went max degen on shorting the top, which I’m probably the only person with this kind of wealth who’s willing to turn it up on 40x leverage and put a significant % on the line,” Wynn wrote. 

Since I began trading this year on HyperLiquid I have made a total profit of $41,696,589.75 (on-chain).

Since as long as I can remember I wanted to be a millionaire, then once I got to the million status I realized it’s really not much at all. (A million is scared money, nearly… pic.twitter.com/tEBVuQTyvI

— James Wynn (@JamesWynnReal) May 9, 2025

From $0 to $87+ million!

Afterwards, Wynn made several long bets on different coins which made him some profits. Three days after his tweet, Wynn made $6.83 million profit from Official Trump (TRUMP). And yet another $4.84 million profit from Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) on May 13. Subsequently, his long bet on kPEPE made him $25.18 million in profit while another long Bitcoin position made him a profit of $16.89 million on May 24. 

By late May his profits had risen to $87 million. From face value – a step by step way up the ladder to $1 billion. But the win was short-lived. His subsequent trades backfired as other whales hunted him with intent of pushing his positions into liquidation. 

From $87+million to $0!

On May 23, Wynn made a loss of $3.69 million from a long ETH position and yet another worth $1.59 million from a Sui (SUI) long position. Two days later another loss of $15.86 million came crashing on a Bitcoin short position. And on May 30, Wynn faced a devastating blow: a BTC long cost him $37.41 million. 

But to him, it was not over yet as he placed yet another $1.20 million worth long position on BTC, which was eventually liquidated. On June 5, James Wynn lost another $2.31 million long position on BTC. And this time round, he decided to call it quits through a post on X. 

“I closed my position. Defeated accepted. MM’s 1-0 Wynn,” Wynn wrote. 

Wynn remained committed to beating the market with his high stakes despite the huge losses, but the market eventually won. By the time of his quitting his total losses had ballooned to $20.4 million as per data by Hyperdash. 

The Risks of Leverage Trading in Crypto

Besides Wynn, other top crypto traders have also lost millions of money in leverage trading. For instance, as reported by Lookonchain, an anonymous Ethereum trader with wallet address 0xf3…057c lost a staggering $308 million from a 50x ETH long position back in March 2025. After the loss, this whale hasn’t made an online appearance ever since. 

Both instances from Wynn and the anonymous Ethereum trader show the big risk associated with high leverage trading. While leverage trading promises huge profits, the underlying risks are too huge, especially with DEXs being fully transparent with such positions.