Pokemon card fans and collectors will be keenly aware that YouTube star Logan Paul recently purchased the world's only known PSA Grade 10 Pikachu Illustrator for a ridiculous amount of money, grabbing himself a Guinness World Record shortly after a wrestling match in which he wore the card around his neck. In a new video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Logan Paul shows viewers the buying process and what he went through to make the transaction happen.
The video in question (shared by Kotaku) shows Paul traveling to multiple different countries to get the deal over the line, and reveals he actually paid $4 million plus a PSA Grade 9 Pikachu Illustrator for the Grade 10 instead of the full $5,275,000. If it ended there then you could make the case that it's a pretty interesting video, but Paul goes and spoils it all by announcing that he's actually turning the card into an NFT, horrifying Pokemon fans across the globe.
Paul has announced that he is listing the card on his co-owned platform called Liquid Marketplace in which fans can throw away their money to "co-own" physical and digital assets "through the power of tokenization." The card is being listed for $5 million and Paul claims he will be retaining 49 percent of the card, meaning his community will be the majority owner, getting to decide what happens to the physical card and if he can wear it during more wrestling matches.
Like with most NFTs, the legality of the entire situation is dodgy at best. Logan Paul is theoretically selling "shares" of a card with officially licensed Pokemon art to the public without the license holder's approval. You'd think The Pokemon Company's legal team is preparing to get involved, especially with how ban-happy it is when striking down Pokemon fan projects, although there's currently no word on whether it or Nintendo plans to put a stop to the whole thing. You'd hope so though, for Pikachu's sake at least.