Rise of a neo‑grifter: who is James Wynn—and what Andrew Tate has to do with it

On May 26 the scandal-prone blogger and former kickboxer Andrew Tate wrote on X: “I am absurdly rich. Honestly, it’s insane. I grew up in Luton with nothing, and now I have hundreds of millions in liquid just sitting idle. Hundreds of millions in assets. Sometimes I wake up and just think: wow… I’m damn rich. Okay, time for the gym.”

Trader James Wynn responded laconically to the post: “Same.” He has recently become widely known for his high‑risk trades on the Hyperliquid platform.

That same day Wynn announced he was leaving the “Hyperliquid casino” with $25m in profit. Hours after the “announcement”, however, he returned to trading. A few days later the trader was hit by a liquidation after bitcoin fell below $105,000, and on June 5 he closed another position at a loss.

The so‑called Matrix

Notably, Wynn explains his setbacks in a conspiratorial register — he exposes a corrupt crypto industry and blames a market‑maker or a backstage cabal allegedly controlling markets.

I tried to defeat them, I failed.

I went up against the BTC cabal.

Nobody ever tried before me.

Not at this level.

God bless.

?

— James Wynn (@JamesWynnReal) June 5, 2025

This worldview echoes Andrew Tate’s “philosophy”, which uses the term “The Matrix” to describe a system of social and cultural norms that constrain people’s freedom (especially men). In his view, the Matrix is an invisible structure run by elites, the media and governments, forcing people to conform to prescribed patterns.

“The Matrix has attacked me,” — said Tate when he was arrested by police in Romania in December 2022 on suspicion of forming an organised criminal group and human trafficking.

The Matrix concept is easy to grasp thanks to the popularity of the eponymous film. It offers a simple frame for complex social problems. Tate casts himself as someone who has “escaped the Matrix” and urges others to do the same. That fosters a sense of belonging to a countercultural movement, which is particularly attractive to young people.

It is no accident that Wynn uses Neo from The Matrix as his avatar on X — Tate’s ideas are congenial to him.

Grifter Neo

On May 31 Tate posted a flattering tweet about Wynn, not forgetting to mention the “simulation”.

Im a @JamesWynnReal fan.

The highest level of capability, true Zen, is understanding nothing is real and nothing matters.

Money isnt real.

The simulation endlessly rewards the brave.

Always has and always will.

And its amazing how bravery, in and of itself, solicits hate…

— Andrew Tate (@Cobratate) May 31, 2025

“I’m a James Wynn fan. The highest level of capability, true Zen, is understanding nothing is real and nothing matters. Money isn’t real. The simulation endlessly rewards the brave. It always has and always will. It’s amazing how bravery, in and of itself, elicits hatred from cowards.”

Later the duo began promoting the memecoin Moonpig in the “traditional” way: Tate received 20m tokens (2% of the supply) and burned them immediately, which he reported on X. Wynn commented on the stunt, then mentioned the memecoin repeatedly.

Earlier, Tate promoted the Solana memecoin DADDY. The price quickly soared despite accusations of insider trading. At the time of publication the token is down 85%.

A glitch in the Matrix

For all Wynn’s Neo‑out‑of‑the‑Matrix posturing and claims that money does not matter, his past conduct suggests otherwise.

On May 28 he again accused a cabal of launching scam tokens in his name, stating that he supports only two tokens — Pepe and Moonpig.

? WARNING ? SCAM ALERT ?

THE CABAL ARE LAUNCHING COINS IN MY NAME AND RUGGING THEM. THIS IS A HEAVILY FARMED COIN AND WILL GO TO ZERO. DO NOT BUY.

VOLUME = $4.3M / MCAP: $495K, IT IS A FARM.

I ONLY SUPPORT TWO NON CABAL MEME COINS AND THAT IS $MOONPIG AND $PEPE

STAY… pic.twitter.com/DgLyYWOkFH

— James Wynn (@JamesWynnReal) May 28, 2025

On‑chain sleuth ZachXBT reacted to the post:

“You’ve literally been doing pump‑and‑dumps of the same scammy memecoins on your followers for the past few years.”

He attached a thread from July 2024 in which user Dylan detailed Wynn’s playbook:

• he contacted the project team, asking for 2% of the total token supply ($57,000 at the time);
• promised to push the market capitalisation to $20m within a few days;
• after receiving the tokens, began promoting them in his Telegram chat 45 minutes later;
• two hours later started selling in $6,000 tranches, ultimately making $68,000;
• when the price fell, called the project a “failure” and blocked the team across all social networks.

Asked “so all his trades are a scam?” ZachXBT answered: “TLDR gambling with stolen money”.

The neo‑grifter

The word “grifter” seems to have gained currency in America with Donald Trump’s rise, and taken on a particular hue: a con artist who extracts money from the credulous, doing so brazenly and at scale because the future looks hazier than ever and tomorrow may never come. The life cycle of many memecoins is measured in days, if not hours.

Often grifters appear from nowhere and vanish into it. Sometimes they return. For now, Wynn is squeezing his notoriety for all it’s worth and, paired with Tate, pushing yet another memecoin.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results, but the ending here looks predictable. Investors would be well advised to treat tokens promoted by this duo with caution.