Logan Paul sells the controversial Pokemon card for $16.5 million
YouTube star Logan Paul set a new Guinness World Record when he sold his Pokemon card for nearly $16.5 million on Monday — the most expensive card sale in history — though the new record sale didn't come without controversy.
A bid for a Pikachu-themed Pokemon card – one of 39 created in a competition in the 1990s – was won by AJ Scaramucci, son of American financier Anthony Scaramucci, beating out many others who bid in the seven- and eight-figure range.
Paul is believed to have made a profit of $8 million after the auction payment on Monday. He purchased the card in July 2021 for $5.3 million.
@LoganPaul Rare @Pokemon card becomes most expensive ever in record-setting auction.
The PSA-10 Pikachu Illustrator was put up for sale via @GoldinCo and eventually sold for $16,492,000.https://t.co/B1YBUIqhbx
— Guinness World Records (@GWR) February 16, 2026
But the record sales sparked criticism of Paul's move to fractionalize its card holdings in the liquid marketplace before the platform goes offline in 2022, prompting investors to scramble for returns and a lawsuit in Canada.
Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel at Delphi Labs, said in a post to X on Monday that Paul's “Pikachu NFT fractionalization fiasco” is “known as ‘slop tokenization'.”
“The token is essentially ‘linked' to an asset but has no rights to it,” Shapiro said, urging investors to read the terms of service and stop rushing into “legal scams.”
Paul commented that Liquid Marketplace went offline due to reasons beyond his control and after learning about the issue, he paid to restore the site so that users could withdraw their funds.
Only 5.4 percent of the card is distributed to owners paying about $270,000, Paul said.
Paul was not named in the June 2024 liquidation marketplace lawsuit filed by Canada's top securities regulator, the Ontario Securities Commission. A trial is set for June.
Logan Paul's past NFT drama
This is not the first time Paul has had to defend himself over his involvement in NFTs. His CryptoZoo NFT project failed to deliver the promised play-to-find game by 2023, attracting investor backlash and a class-action suit.
Related: US prosecutors drop OpenSea NFT fraud case after appeals court overturns
It set up a buyback program and eventually paid back investors after agreeing to drop legal claims and the class-action fraud suit was finally dismissed in 2025.
Other NFT investments have also moved, including an anime-style digital avatar from the 0N1 Force collection he bought in 2021 for around $635,000; Now it costs less than $2,000.
The NFT market continues to slide.
Pokemon card sales are the opposite of the NFT market, which operates on digital collectibles.
While the NFT market got off to a strong start in the first two weeks of 2026, the total NFT market cap fell more than 50%, from $3.2 billion to $1.55 billion amid a broader market slowdown.
Last month, NFT marketplaces Rodeo and Nifty Gateway announced they would cease operations in the last week of January, adding to the sector's high-profile shutdowns.
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