Logan Paul’s Liquid Marketplace raises $8 million to let fans own fractions of prized collectibles

When he stepped into the Wrestlemania ring on April 2, Logan Paul was wearing a rare Pokemon card around his neck. Now, rare assets like that one will be available to blockchain-based buyers on Paul’s new venture, Liquid Marketplace.

Liquid, which recently raised $8 million, is a “fractional marketplace.” Some of its assets, such as the aforementioned Pikachu Illustrator Pokemon card and a handful of rare basketball cards, are worth millions of dollars. If you don’t have a seven-figure sum just lying around, you can pay a reduced price to purchase a partial ownership stake in a high-value collectible.

Paul announced the launch of Liquid Marketplace on Twitter. In a brief video, he shared some highlights from the company’s collection and explained the mechanisms through which users will be able to buy and sell their fractional ownership stakes.

For most creators, launching a venture as big as Liquid Marketplace would be a monumental moment. The elder Paul brother, however, is not most creators, and the arrival of Liquid Marketplace didn’t even end up being the highlight of his week. A few days after the fractional-ownership forum went live, Paul started teasing “the biggest thing I’ve ever done” on Twitter

That “passion project” turned out to be 99 Originals, a new NFT collection that consists of unique Polaroid photos. Paul assembled the collection by taking a picture every day for 99 days. In a trailer for the project, we see some of the results from that period: There are some NSFW pics (this is Logan Paul, of course), a shot of Logan’s brother Jake in the boxing ring, and at least one Bored Ape Yacht Club parody. In the words of the creator himself, the NFTs up for sale constitute “actual art.”

It’s good that Paul is focusing on original work here, because his previous forays into the Web3 world have been a mixed bag. He was one of the first creators to embrace NFTs, and he found novel ways to combine that passion with his interest in rare collectibles. But not all of those ventures have been well-received. Paul’s CryptoZoo collection caught the attention of YouTube’s eagle-eyed fraud basher, Coffeezilla, who argued that photoshopped animal images were nothing to get excited about.

Later on, Paul blew $3.5 million on fake Pokemon cards. As he announced Liquid Marketplace, he ensured potential buyers that all of the site’s inventory is totally legit.

At his most innovative, Paul has the ability to recognize and react to the future of the digital media industry. At the same time, it’s easy to wonder whether a lightning rod for controversy is the right person to handle complex concepts like fractional ownership. If you’re confused about how Liquid actually works, a Q&A session with CEO Ryan Bahadori may clear up some of your confusion.

As for 99 Originals, those NFTs will go on sale soon. Look for them on this website beginning on April 18.