Key takeaways:
The most influential traders in 2025 are shaping markets not only through capital but also through narratives.
James Wynn demonstrates how extreme leverage can result in extraordinary gains, but can also lead to rapid capital loss.
Andrew Kang illustrates that aligning clear macro or policy changes with confident trades can yield results… if sized properly.
GCR highlights that contrarian altcoin investments are most successful when timed sharply and exited quickly.
Machi Big Brother shows that trading in memes and NFTs is characterized by pure volatility — fortunes can change overnight.
Arthur Hayes indicates that macro forecasts can influence market sentiment, although even high-level predictions carry inherent risks.
Crypto trading in 2025 presents a stark contrast to the prior year. Institutional participants are entering the arena more boldly, regulations are beginning to stabilize, and liquidity is transforming market behaviors.
As substantial capital flows, the focus has shifted from merely “what” is traded to “who” is driving the markets.
Social media influencers, anonymous large holders, and experienced macro investors now exert significant influence. Their actions can ignite narratives, create momentum, and drive price discoveries well beyond retail speculation’s usual noise.
In this article, we spotlight five traders to watch in 2025. Some take high risks while others think strategically, yet all significantly impact the market.
1) James Wynn: High-stakes leverage and crucial insights
James Wynn (commonly known as JamesWynnReal) is among the most scrutinized traders in 2025 — celebrated for both sensational wins and equally dramatic losses.
His trading style is distinct: significant leverage (often up to 40x), adventurous memecoin dealings, and a penchant for chasing volatility in Bitcoin (BTC) and other macro-sensitive assets.
In May 2025, Wynn reportedly initiated a 40x-leveraged long position on Bitcoin valued between $1.1 billion and $1.25 billion. When BTC fell, the position (along with several others) was liquidated, leading to losses of tens of millions of dollars.
This wasn’t his first risky moment. Initially, Wynn transformed a small Pepe (PEPE) investment into multimillion-dollar returns, then ramped up into aggressive leveraged bets — many culminating in liquidation — particularly on memecoins like PEPE.
The pattern is well-known: significant gains followed by distressing downsides.
For onlookers, Wynn embodies both aspects of speculative trading: how bold moves can dominate headlines, and how swiftly capital can evaporate.
2) Andrew Kang: Thesis-driven infrastructure and macro investments
Andrew Kang, co-founder of Mechanism Capital, attracts attention for his thesis-driven approach.
Mechanism has supported projects across decentralized finance (DeFi), infrastructure, and gaming, but Kang uniquely stands out by openly sharing narrative theses and translating them into liquid trades.
In April 2025, one of his most notable moves occurred on Hyperliquid’s perpetuals exchange. Using a Mechanism-associated wallet (0xBb87), Kang opened a 40x leveraged Bitcoin long approximately valued at $100 million, swiftly scaling it to about $200 million.
This action coincided with changing US tariff policies and a social media announcement from US President Donald Trump stating, “This is an excellent time to buy,” followed by a temporary 90-day tariff pause.
Kang subsequently trimmed part of the position for profits, allowing the rest to be unwound gradually through time-weighted average price (TWAP) orders.
His strategy appears to combine macro or policy drivers with conviction-fueled trades, often publicizing narrative theses that shape market sentiments.
Did you know? Before becoming a venture capitalist and trader, Kang earned around $5,000 through arbitrage trading Dogecoin (DOGE) on Reddit and over-the-counter markets while in college.
3) GCR (Gigantic Rebirth): Contrarian conviction in altcoins and narratives
GCR (short for Gigantic Rebirth) is a semi-anonymous trader renowned for bold, high-conviction calls. He gained notoriety for correctly shorting LUNA (including a $10 million bet with Do Kwon) before its downfall and has since been recognized for blending contrarian altcoin investments with acute macro insights.
In 2025, GCR was involved in unwinding substantial altcoin positions, including the sale of about 174.9 million CULT tokens within hours, converting them to Ether (ETH) and Tether’s USDt (USDT) for approximately $557,000.
Simultaneously, he made optimistic predictions, such as forecasting a $10,000 price target for ETH while analyzing tokens like Shiba Inu (SHIB) and INTL, linking their potential to broader influences like inflation and network activity.
A controversy emerged in mid-2025 when screenshots and claims suggested that GCR might have gained early access to recommendations from Teeka Tiwari’s Palm Beach Confidential before their public release. The allegations are unverified, but they underscore the scrutiny surrounding his actions.
What characterizes GCR is a mixture of bold altcoin involvement, prompt exits when necessary, and public narrative strategies that frequently contradict mainstream consensus.
Did you know? GCR accurately shorted LUNA near $90 prior to its collapse, earning a substantial profit when the crash occurred.
4) Machi Big Brother (Jeffrey Huang): High-leverage meme and NFT experiences
Jeffrey Huang, known as Machi Big Brother, is a Taiwanese-American music and entertainment entrepreneur turned crypto figure. He founded projects such as Mithril and is connected to Cream Finance. Recently, he has been actively involved in onchain trading, non-fungible token (NFT) speculation, and daring memecoin plays.
In 2025, Machi sustained that reputation through large leveraged positions. One instance: a 25x Ether long valued at approximately $54 million. Concurrently, he entered Hyperliquid (HYPE) with a 5x leveraged position.
At one point, his portfolio reportedly displayed over $30 million in unrealized gains across ETH, HYPE, and Pump.fun’s PUMP. However, on PUMP alone, he has reportedly faced a net loss of $4.3 million.
His trading technique is marked by bold moves: he takes significant leveraged positions, occasionally flips direction (long to short) on speculative assets, and is known for rapid reversals.
For observers, Machi exemplifies the volatility of the meme and NFT-driven crypto space — where fortunes can shift within hours.
5) Arthur Hayes: Macro forecaster and cycle planner
Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX and chief investment officer of Maelstrom, is recognized as a leading macro voice in crypto. His essays and interviews frequently intertwine themes of central bank policies, liquidity movements, and the supply mechanics of Bitcoin and Ether — often shaping how the market perceives macro-crypto dynamics.
In 2025, Hayes shared a series of bold predictions. On the pessimistic end, he indicated the possibility of a correction that could bring Bitcoin down to the $70,000-$75,000 range during tightening phases.
Yet his long-term perspective is markedly optimistic: he forecasts that Bitcoin might rise as high as $200,000 by year-end, supported by US Treasury bond buybacks and an influx of global liquidity.
On Ether, Hayes has emphasized supply dynamics (staking, fee burn, and layer-2 activities) as key supporting factors and has recently re-entered a long ETH position based on these metrics.
At the same time, he has not shied away from downside risks, pointing out inflation, tariffs, and weak labor statistics as potential triggers for retracements toward $100,000.
Hayes provides followers with dual insights: being both a macro analyst and a trader who takes risks himself.
His forecasts may not always materialize, but they often influence market perceptions of risk and opportunity.
Did you know? Hayes lost some of his early Bitcoin in the Mt. Gox hack in 2013, similar to many early adopters.
“There is a time to go long, a time to go short and a time to go fishing”
James Wynn, Andrew Kang, GCR, Machi Big Brother, and Arthur Hayes are five influential figures shaping crypto trading in 2025.
From high-risk leverage to macro thesis strategies, contrarian altcoin bets, and institutional involvement, their strategies reveal numerous factors influencing the market simultaneously.
As institutional investments surge, yield strategies evolve, and regulations tighten, the margin for error has diminished. These traders can act as early indicators of changing sentiments, but their actions can be noisy and costly to replicate without understanding the context.
The real advantage lies in observation: analyzing how they construct narratives, size positions, and handle risk.
Learn from their experiences, but refrain from blindly copying their trades. Maintain your own calibrated risk, closely monitor liquidity and policy changes, and view the market as a dynamic system where even well-seasoned figures can be mistaken.
This article does not provide investment advice or recommendations. Each investment and trading decision entails risk, and readers are encouraged to conduct their own research before making any decisions.
