Logan Paul Invested $500K In A Bizarre Asset — Says It Has Doubled In Value And Could Beat Stocks

Logan Paul owns zero stocks, holds no bonds and keeps no treasuries. What the 31-year-old YouTuber and WWE wrestler does own is a 66-million-year-old Triceratops skull he bought for $500,000 (£378,000) roughly three years ago. He told the Iced Coffee Hour podcast it is now worth about $1 million (£756,000).

'Over the next 20 years, I do think a dinosaur is going to outperform the stock market,' Paul told hosts Graham Stephan and Jack Selby during a wide-ranging interview at his home in Puerto Rico.

Paul, who co-founded the Prime energy drink brand, said his liquid cash sits between $30 million (£22.7 million) and $40 million (£30.2 million). The hosts had estimated $80 million to $90 million (£60.5 million to £68 million). Paul attributed the gap to spending, including a $4 million (£3 million) wedding and a new house in Puerto Rico.

When the hosts asked whether he held any financial instruments, Paul said he did not. His financial adviser, he added, considers him 'a lunatic.' Paul said he views the adviser more as a certified public accountant than someone whose guidance he follows.

'What am I going to do with the stock, bro?' Paul said. He told the hosts he had briefly used E-Trade, lost money and pulled out entirely.

$16.49M Pokemon Card Sale Fuelled by the Same Collectibles Bet

The dinosaur skull is part of a broader collectibles-over-equities philosophy that Paul has built his finances around. Days before the podcast interview, he sold a Pikachu Illustrator Pokémon card for $16.49 million (£12.5 million) at auction. He had bought it for $5.3 million (£4 million) in 2022.

Paul told the hosts he has spent at least $10 million (£7.6 million) on Pokémon cards in total and that more of his net worth had been tied up in 'cardboard' than any financial adviser would consider sensible. He stores the collection in a private vault.

'I go to the vault that we store the cards in. I look at my card and I feel good,' he said. 'Nvidia stock can't make me do that.'

Paul said he had been collecting in silence on certain categories to avoid bidding up prices against himself. 'If I'm vocal about something and a market spikes and I want more of it, I've essentially just bid against myself,' he said.

He added that a $2 million (£1.5 million) offer he made on a separate dinosaur skull was rejected after the seller learned it was him.

Paul Watched $44.6M Stegosaurus Auction Live and Could Not Compete

Paul said he had wanted to buy dinosaur fossils for years but that the market moved beyond his reach. He described watching the July 2024 Sotheby's auction of 'Apex,' a near-complete Stegosaurus skeleton, in real time. The pre-sale estimate was $4 million to $6 million (£3 million to £4.5 million). Paul said he was ready to bid.

'And so I'm watching this Stegosaurus go up. I'm like, 11 million. This is crazy. Twice the estimate. 25 million. 30,' he said.

Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin ultimately paid $44.6 million (£33.7 million) for the specimen. He has since loaned it to the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Paul said that the auction convinced him his Pikachu Illustrator could 'go nuclear' at auction, comparing it to the effect the Paul Newman Rolex Daytona sale had on the wider watch market.

The wider fossil market has kept climbing. Earlier this month, a Triceratops skeleton known as 'Trey' sold for $5.55 million (£4.2 million) on Joopiter, the online auction platform founded by Pharrell Williams. The seller, Singapore-based crypto investor Chaw Wei Yang, 26, had bought it roughly two and a half years earlier, CNN reported. The previous auction record for a dinosaur had been held by 'Stan,' a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton that sold for $31.8 million (£24 million) to the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism in October 2020.

'It Should Be In Museum,' Paul Says of His Triceratops Skull

Paul said he has dug for fossils himself in Montana alongside a group called the Hell Creek Hooligans, who he said recently unearthed the largest T-Rex tooth ever found. He told the hosts the experience sparked ideas about starting a fossil extraction company.

'Sticking your knife in the ground and twisting it just to find a tooth for eight hours a day is not a viable way to optimise the extraction of fossils from the earth,' he said.

He also said best-in-class specimens belonged in public collections. He praised Griffin's decision to loan out Apex and suggested his own skull might warrant the same. 'I have this Triceratops skull, right? And I'm like, yo, maybe it should be in a museum,' he said. He drew the line at rarer finds. One-of-a-kind skeletons like Stan, he said, should not be in private hands.

For those priced out of full skeletons, Paul pointed to a lower entry. He said a T-Rex tooth could cost around $50,000 (£37,800). He bought his own for $30,000 (£22,700) and said it is now worth roughly $60,000 (£45,400).

Neither Paul's valuation of the skull nor his prediction about long-term fossil returns has been independently verified. The dinosaur market remains small and illiquid compared with traditional equities, and prices depend on species rarity, bone completeness and provenance.