Synthetix Million Dollar Trading Competition Reveals the Brutal Truth: Can Masters of Copy Trading Really Profit?

At the end of the Synthetix Million Dollar Trading Competition, the cruel truth of the cryptocurrency world was exposed: 100 top traders and KOLs participated, 90% of which ended up losing money, but they could beat 90% of the elites by not trading!
(Previous summary: The myth of the 100% winning whale whale is over. Let’s see how the Hyperliquid leveraged whale personally emptied itself?)
(Background supplement: Synthetix failed to acquire Derive for US$27 million, and was questioned by the community: there was no commitment not to issue additional tokens)

Contents of this article

Cryptocurrency derivatives agreement Synthetix launched on 9 The "Trading Competition" launched at the end of the month, with a total prize of up to US$1 million, was originally a grand event to celebrate the listing of its Perpetual Contract Decentralized Exchange (Perps DEX) on the Ethereum (Ethereum) main network, but it unexpectedly became a "cruel mirror" to the trading world.

This invitation-only competition brought together 100 top traders and opinion leaders (KOL), with a total trading volume of more than 2.5 billion US dollars. However, the final results showed that up to 90% of the participants actually recorded negative returns (PnL), highlighting the ruthless nature of highly leveraged trading.

Synthetix is launching the first perp DEX on Ethereum mainnet

To battle test our DEX ahead of launch, we will be running a trading competition featuring a roster of the biggest & best traders in the industry

The winner will take home $1,000,000

📘 https://t.co/7TWS3tsJhp
🧵⬇️

— Synthetix ⚔️ (@synthetix) September 22, 2025

Competition background: the high-profile debut of the first Perps DEX on the Ethereum mainnet

Synthetix, as a veteran project in the field of DeFi derivatives, returned to the Ethereum mainnet this time and launched a native high-performance perpetual contract exchange, marking a key step in its "go home" strategy.

The platform supports multiple collaterals (such as ETH, wstETH, sUSDe), provides gas fee-free settlement, millisecond order matching, and native custody services without bridging. It aims to combine the security and liquidity of the Ethereum main network to challenge competitors such as HyperLiquid.

In order to test the stability of the platform and attract global attention, Synthetix announced this trading competition on September 23, with a total prize pool of US$1 million. The first place will receive a bonus of 1 million USDC, and the remaining top ten will win SNX tokens and Infinex Patron NFT.

The competition lasts for three weeks (until November 11). Each participant will receive a non-withdrawable "seed deposit" of US$100,000. The goal is to accumulate the maximum deposit balance in the perpetual contract market of eight major assets, including BTC, ETH, and SOL.

The official emphasized that this move is not only a marketing activity, but also a "stress test": simulating high-volume trading scenarios and optimizing the liquidity and risk parameters of the platform.

International elites fighting among gods

This competition adopts a direct invitation mechanism and carefully selects 50 top KOLs and 50 elite traders.

International big names include Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy, James Wynn, who made $100 million in 70 days, and legendary traders such as Ansem; the KOL lineup includes X platform celebrities such as CryptoKaleo, DonAlt, and DegenSpartan. Representatives from the Chinese region even sent top players such as “大达比比大哥” (@daidaibtc) and “风无向风哥” (@Web3Feng) to bring fierce competition from an Asian perspective to the competition.

At the beginning of the competition, the scene was very heated: CryptoKaleo took the lead with $6,000, and Web3Feng bravely went long BTC 20 times, and at one point doubled the principal of $50,000 to $500,000.

Result: 90% loss rate, even better than 90% of the experts

However, after the game: only 10 of the 100 participants recorded positive PnL, and 90% fell into negative values. This also means that the strategy of "doing nothing and holding stablecoins and staying flat" can easily defeat most of the "top experts".

What is even more tragic is that more than 35 traders lost more than 90% of their principal, and even all were liquidated, including well-known KOLs such as Rasmr (their positions were liquidated on the first day) and DegenPing.

The most frustrating thing is the story of Web3Feng, the representative of the Chinese region. He ranked first in the game for a long time. However, at the end of the game, due to the lack of a stop-loss mechanism, sudden market fluctuations led to all liquidations, and he fell from the championship to the bottom.

Regarding such a result, the community joked: "It is really true to beat 90% of the top traders without trading."

Market revelation: Trading is a non-zero-sum game, retail investors' risks increase

This competition is like a vivid lesson, tearing away the disguise of the trading market: the end of leverage trading seems to be liquidation. Although these contestants have experienced many battles and have assets worth hundreds of millions, 90% still lose.

Their records are so miserable. As ordinary retail investors, if they don’t do their homework, how can they take away profits from the market?