A $16.5 Million Pokemon Card and the Crypto Buyer Behind It
AJ Scaramucci, son of SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci and managing partner of Solari Capital, has purchased Logan Paul's Pikachu Illustrator card for $16.49 million at Goldin Auctions, as of February 16, 2026. The sale makes it the most expensive trading card ever sold at auction, surpassing the 1952 Mickey Mantle baseball card that fetched $12.6 million in 2022.
The buyer is no stranger to crypto-scale capital allocation. AJ Scaramucci's firm Solari Capital led a $220 million funding round into American Bitcoin, a mining company connected to the Trump family, in 2025. His father Anthony has long been one of the most visible crypto advocates on Wall Street.
But the card itself carries a blockchain backstory that makes this more than a collectibles story.
The 1-of-1 Grading That Commands Eight Figures
The Pikachu Illustrator is one of approximately 41 copies distributed as prizes in a 1997 CoroCoro Comic illustration contest in Japan. Of the copies that have survived, only one has ever received a PSA gem mint 10 grade. That is the card Logan Paul purchased several years ago for $5.275 million in a private sale that Guinness World Records recognized as the most expensive Pokemon card transaction at the time.
At Goldin Auctions, the hammer price landed at approximately $13.3 million before the buyer's premium brought the total to $16.49 million. Paul reportedly netted around $8 million in profit after fees. The card arrived in a custom wooden presentation box bearing Paul's Maverick logo.
For context, the broader collectibles market has been compressing. Sports card indices are down from their 2021 peaks. That a single Pokemon card can triple its value in this environment says something about the premium collectors place on true 1-of-1 scarcity, a concept the crypto world understands well.
The Fractionalization Fiasco That Haunts the Card
Here is where the story intersects directly with blockchain and tokenization. In 2022, Logan Paul listed a fractional ownership stake in the Pikachu Illustrator on Liquid MarketPlace, a Canadian platform that allowed investors to buy tokenized shares of high-value collectibles. Paul offered 5.4% of the card for approximately $270,000 in total investor contributions.
Then the platform went dark.
Liquid MarketPlace's website went offline, stranding investors who had purchased fractional tokens. In June 2024, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) launched enforcement proceedings against the platform, characterizing the operation as a "multi-layered fraud" and accusing executives of misappropriating $3 million through shell companies. The funds were allegedly spent on luxury items including watches and spa treatments.
Logan Paul was not named as a defendant in the OSC action. He stated publicly that the platform's shutdown was "outside of my control" and claimed he personally funded the restoration of the site to enable user withdrawals. He also said he repurchased the fractional stake, regaining full ownership before the Goldin auction.
Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel at Delphi Labs, called the entire episode a "Pikachu NFT fractionalization fiasco," arguing that tokenized fractional ownership created confusion about rights without granting holders any enforceable claim to the underlying asset.
What This Tells Us About RWA Tokenization Risk
The Liquid MarketPlace collapse is a case study in what can go wrong when real-world asset tokenization lacks proper custody, legal structure, and regulatory compliance. The concept of fractionalized ownership of physical collectibles is sound in theory. In practice, every element of the stack, from token issuance to asset custody to legal enforceability, has to work.
The tokenized gold market recently crossed $6 billion with established custodians and auditable reserves. Protocols like Morpho are attracting institutional capital from Apollo with proper legal wrappers. The difference between these functioning RWA systems and the Liquid MarketPlace failure comes down to infrastructure maturity. Tokenizing an asset on a website with no regulatory license, no independent custodian, and no legal framework for holder rights was always going to be fragile.
For anyone exploring tokenized assets, whether collectibles, real estate, or commodities, the lesson is clear: the token is only as good as the legal and custodial framework behind it. A smart contract alone does not constitute ownership.
The Crypto Wealth Pipeline Into Alternative Assets
AJ Scaramucci spending $16.5 million on a Pokemon card is part of a broader pattern of crypto-native capital flowing into alternative assets. The Scaramucci family's $220 million bet on Bitcoin mining through American Bitcoin, Anthony's long-running advocacy through SkyBridge and the SALT conference, and now AJ's record-breaking collectibles purchase all point to the same dynamic: crypto wealth is diversifying outward.
This is happening across the space. Solana's RWA ecosystem recently hit $1.66 billion as tokenized value nearly doubled in six weeks. Binance formally recognized Internet Capital Markets as the next infrastructure layer. The appetite for bridging crypto capital into traditional asset classes, whether through tokenization or outright purchases, is accelerating.
The irony is that the very card that failed as a tokenized asset succeeded spectacularly as a traditional auction item. Sometimes the old rails still work best, at least until the new ones are properly built.
The Authenticity Question
The sale has not been without controversy beyond the tokenization history. Streamer Mizkif publicly questioned whether the card's PSA 10 grade was legitimate, alleging it had been regraded twice from a PSA 8. In the high-stakes world of card grading, a jump from 8 to 10 can mean millions of dollars in value difference. PSA has not publicly commented on the specific grading history of the card.
For a $16.5 million transaction, grading integrity is not a minor concern. It parallels the trust infrastructure challenges in crypto: whether you are relying on a card grading authority or a blockchain oracle, the value of the asset depends on the credibility of the verification layer.
FAQ
Who bought Logan Paul's Pikachu Illustrator card? AJ Scaramucci, managing partner of Solari Capital and son of SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci, purchased the card for $16.49 million at Goldin Auctions in February 2026.
Why is this card so valuable? The Pikachu Illustrator is one of approximately 41 copies from a 1997 Japanese contest. The copy sold is the only one to receive a PSA gem mint 10 grade, making it effectively a 1-of-1 at the highest quality tier.
What happened with the tokenization of the card? In 2022, Logan Paul listed 5.4% of the card on Liquid MarketPlace for fractional token ownership. The platform later went offline, and the Ontario Securities Commission filed enforcement proceedings characterizing the operation as a "multi-layered fraud." Paul was not named as a defendant and says he repurchased the fractional stake.
How much did Logan Paul profit from the sale? Paul originally purchased the card for $5.275 million. After the $16.49 million sale and auction fees, his net profit was approximately $8 million.
Does AJ Scaramucci have other crypto investments? Yes. Solari Capital led a $220 million investment round into American Bitcoin, a mining company, in 2025. The Scaramucci family has been active in crypto through SkyBridge Capital and the SALT conference for years.
Overview
AJ Scaramucci's $16.5 million purchase of Logan Paul's Pikachu Illustrator at Goldin Auctions sets a new record for the most expensive trading card ever sold at auction. The card, a PSA gem mint 10 graded 1-of-1 from a 1997 Japanese promotion, comes with a complicated blockchain backstory: it was previously fractionalized on Liquid MarketPlace, a Canadian tokenization platform that collapsed and now faces securities fraud charges from the Ontario Securities Commission. The sale highlights both the growing flow of crypto wealth into alternative assets and the risks of premature tokenization without proper legal and custodial infrastructure.
Recommended Reading
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- Binance Formally Recognizes Internet Capital Markets as Crypto's Next Infrastructure Layer, With $664M Already on Chain
- Solana RWA Ecosystem Smashes Through $1.66 Billion as Tokenized Value Nearly Doubles in Six Weeks
