Logan Paul bought a $500,000 dinosaur skull instead of investing in stocks — and says it’s already doubled in value

"Over the next 20 years, I do think a dinosaur is going to outperform the stock market," Paul told co-hosts Graham Stephan and Jack Selby.

He bought his prized Triceratops skull for $500,000 three years ago and believes it's doubled in value to $1 million.

This month, Singapore-based crypto investor and art collector Chaw Wei Yang, 26, sold another Triceratops — a more complete skeleton he bought a couple of years ago — for $5.5 million.

"Of all the alternative assets I grew up seeing — wine, art, cars — I think dinosaurs are the most untapped, investment-wise," Yang told (2) CNN

Dinosaur fossils certainly stand out as a pretty extreme asset class, befitting a WWE wrestler. Here's a look at whether they're a good one.

Betting big on bones

As CNN reports (3), dinosaur fossils are fetching millions of dollars at auction:

• October 2020. "Stan," one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons in the world, sold for $31.8 million to the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism. It was a record-setting price.
• July 2024. Billionaire Kenneth C. Griffin, CEO of Catalyst, shelled out (4) $44.6 million to buy (5) "Apex," a Stegosaurus skeleton, setting a new world record. He has since loaned (6) the specimen to the American Museum of Natural History for four years.
• July 2025. A rare Ceratosaurus fossil sold for $30.5 million in a bidding war.

But do they beat out equities as a way to build wealth?

Iced Coffee Hour co-host Graham Stephan asked Paul — who owns zero stocks — why he'd invest millions in fossils and not the stock market.

Paul responded that it was all about the intrinsic value of "the coolest piece of art" and a sense of awe, admiring dinosaurs as "the greatest species to ever roam the Earth."

"To get to own a piece of that and let myself be inspired and count my blessings every day and like look up at the sky and realize my humanity," he said. "Like, bro, Nvidia stock can't make me do that."

He also admires Griffin's decision to loan out his Stegasaurus to the American Museum of Natural History, as he says having it in a private collection would be "a bit of a shame."

"I have this Triceratops skull, right?" Paul said. "And like I'm like, yo, maybe it should be in a museum."

Not that he doesn't see business opportunities in the field — literally.

Paul has taken part in dinosaur excavations. He told the Iced Coffee Hour hosts that he believes there should be a way to excavate fossils more efficiently.

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

Safer alternatives

Paul suggested that if you don't have $1 million to drop on a dinosaur, you can still snag a T. -rex tooth for $50,000.

But spending even $50,000 on a dinosaur tooth is a lot of money for average investors, and may not be the safest way to stash your cash. And there's no guarantee that it will increase in value.

They may not have been around as long as dinosaurs, but artwork, wine, stamps and other collectibles are more traditional — and potentially more affordable — alternative assets.