- YouTuber Logan Paul sold a rare Pokémon card for a record $16.5 million, netting him an $8 million profit.
- The sale reignited criticism over Paul’s past NFT ventures, including a fractionalized token for the same card deemed a “legal scam.”
- The collectible’s high-value sale contrasts sharply with the broader NFT market, which has lost over 50% of its value this year.
YouTube personality Logan Paul made history on Monday by selling a rare Pikachu Illustrator Pokémon card for nearly $16.5 million in a record-setting auction. The sale, confirmed by Guinness World Records, was won by AJ Scaramucci, son of financier Anthony Scaramucci.
However, the transaction immediately reignited controversy surrounding Paul’s previous fractionalization of the card’s ownership. In 2022, he tokenized a portion of the asset on Liquid Marketplace before the platform went offline, prompting investor losses and a lawsuit in Canada.
Delphi Labs general counsel Gabriel Shapiro said the scheme was a “classic case of ‘slop tokenization.'” Paul responded, stating he later paid to restore the site so users could withdraw funds after becoming aware of the issue.
This is not Paul’s first NFT controversy, as his failed CryptoZoo project led to a dismissed class-action lawsuit after a buyback. Meanwhile, his $635,000 investment in a 0N1 Force Ethereum/0x3bf2922f4520a8ba0c2efc3d2a1539678dad5e9d/717″ rel=”noopener nofollow” target=”_blank”>avatar is now worth under $2,000.
Consequently, the record physical card sale starkly opposes the struggling digital collectibles sector. Data shows the total NFT market cap has plummeted over 50% to $1.55 billion in 2026.
This downturn follows high-profile platform closures, including Rodeo and Nifty Gateway, which announced plans to wind down operations last month.
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