YouTube personality Logan Paul has sold a rare Pikachu Illustrator Pokémon card for a record $16.5 million. The sale, confirmed by Guinness World Records, was made to AJ Scaramucci, son of financier Anthony Scaramucci. The transaction revived criticism of Paul’s previous effort to fractionalize the card’s ownership via tokens on the now-defunct Liquid Marketplace.
YouTube star Logan Paul set a new Guinness World Record by selling his rare Pokémon card for nearly $16.5 million. The Pikachu Illustrator card auction was won by AJ Scaramucci, who outbid several seven- and eight-figure offers.
Paul is believed to have made an $8 million profit after fees on the sale. He originally purchased the card for $5.3 million in July 2021.
The record sale reignited criticism over Paul’s 2022 move to fractionalize the card’s ownership on Liquid Marketplace. The platform later went offline, leaving investors scrambling and prompting a lawsuit in Canada.
Delphi Labs general counsel Gabriel Shapiro said the situation was a “classic case of ‘slop tokenization.'” He stated the “token is basically just ‘juxtaposed’ with property but has no rights to it.”
Paul addressed the criticism, stating the platform’s failure was beyond his control. He noted only 5.4% of the card was fractionalized, for which owners paid about $270,000.
Paul is not named in the Liquid Marketplace lawsuit brought by Canada’s Ontario Securities Commission. A hearing for that case is scheduled for June.
This is not Paul’s first controversy involving digital assets. His CryptoZoo NFT project failed to deliver a promised game, leading to a class-action suit settled in 2025.
Other NFT investments by Paul have also lost significant value. An anime-style avatar he bought for around $635,000 in 2021 is now valued under $2,000.
The record card sale contrasts with a broader slump in the NFT market. The total NFT market cap has fallen by more than 50% from $3.2 billion to $1.55 billion in recent weeks.
Last month, NFT marketplaces Rodeo and Nifty Gateway announced they would wind down operations. These closures add to a string of high-profile shutdowns in the sector.
