On February 16, the only PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator in existence sold for $16,492,000 at Goldin Auctions. The buyer was A.J. Scaramucci, son of financier Anthony Scaramucci. It is the most expensive trading card ever sold at auction by a wide margin.
Logan Paul bought the card in July 2021 for $5.275 million. He just tripled his money. On paper, this is the greatest single-card flip in the history of the hobby.
But the sale itself is only one layer. Underneath it: a prediction market with suspicious activity, a fractional ownership platform accused of fraud, and a grading controversy that won't die.
The Polymarket Problem
More than $8.75 million in volume moved through Polymarket on bets tied to this auction. Over 11 million shares traded. People were gambling on what a Pokemon card would sell for. That alone is a sign of the times.
Here's where it gets uncomfortable. Nearly a week before the auction closed, a brand-new wallet appeared and placed roughly $190,000 in bets predicting the card would clear $10M, $12M, and $15M. All three hit. The wallet had never made a single bet on Polymarket before. It walked away with over $265,000 in profit.
At the time of the final bid, Polymarket's consensus had the card at a 96% chance of clearing $6 million. Not $16 million. Whoever owned that wallet was either the luckiest first-time bettor in prediction market history or knew something the rest of the market didn't.
No official investigation has been announced. But the crypto community is already running the forensics.
Liquid Marketplace: The Fractional Ownership Mess
Before the Goldin auction, this card had a different financial life. Logan Paul co-founded Liquid Marketplace, a platform that sold fractional ownership tokens in collectibles. The Illustrator was its flagship asset.
In summer 2022, 5.4% of the card was sold to fractional investors for about $270,000. Then in June 2024, the Ontario Securities Commission accused Liquid Marketplace of being a "multi-layered fraud." The OSC alleged that executives Ryan Bahadori, Amin Nikdel, and former CFO Dennis Domazet diverted approximately $3 million of investor funds for personal use. The platform sold $2.7 million in tokens the regulator classified as unregistered securities.
Paul was not named in the OSC proceeding. He says he bought the card back in May 2024 at the original sale price and that fractional holders were able to withdraw their funds. The platform went offline. Fans are calling for a class action lawsuit. The Ontario hearing is set for July 31.
So the card that just sold for $16.49 million was previously the centerpiece of a platform now accused of fraud. That context matters.
The PSA 10 Question
This card's grade is part of what makes it a $16 million asset. There are roughly 41 known Illustrator Pikachus. This is the only one graded PSA 10.
Some collectors have questioned that grade for years. The card was reportedly graded a PSA 9 on multiple previous submissions. Critics point out that in the early days, PSA charged single-digit dollars for regrades and didn't treat Pokemon with the same scrutiny as sports cards. Streamer Mizkif has publicly said he believes the card would grade an 8 without Paul's celebrity attached to it.
Ahead of the auction, Ken Goldin had PSA reholder the card in a brand-new 2026 slab. It came back a 10. Again. That should settle it. But in the grading world, skepticism is forever. Once a card has been submitted multiple times and the grade history is unclear, the questions never fully go away.
Whether it's a legitimate 10 or not, someone just paid $16.49 million for it. The market has spoken.
The Full Arc
The Pokemon collecting story of Logan Paul is genuinely one of the strangest arcs in hobby history.
In December 2021, he paid $3.5 million for what he believed was a sealed case of first edition Base Set Pokemon boxes. When they opened the case on his YouTube channel, the packs inside were G.I. Joe. Worth about $359 total. The seller, Matt Allen (Shyne150), refunded the $3.5 million.
Five years later, the same person who got scammed for $3.5 million on fakes just recorded the highest-ever auction result for a real card. From victim of the biggest fraud in Pokemon history to holder of its biggest sale.
What This Means for the Market
The broader Pokemon market has cooled significantly since the 2021 peak. Most vintage cards are down 30-50% from their highs. Sealed product has cratered. The speculator wave receded.
But the absolute top end keeps climbing. The Illustrator is not a market indicator. It is a trophy asset. There is one PSA 10, and there will likely only ever be one. A.J. Scaramucci told CNBC this was the first move in a planned "planetary treasure hunt" that also includes a T-Rex fossil and the Declaration of Independence. That's the buyer profile for a $16 million card. Not a collector. A trophy hunter.
For regular collectors, the takeaway is simple: the ceiling keeps rising, but the floor hasn't come back. The hobby is healthy at the extremes and still finding its footing in the middle.