Crypto startups chase liquidity in Pokémon card boom

Pokémon trading cards are evolving from childhood collectibles into a multibillion-dollar alternative asset market, prompting blockchain companies to build digital trading systems around physical cards stored securely in vaults. The technology can speed up transactions, but attracting enough buyers and sellers remains the larger challenge.

Estimates put the wider trading-card market at roughly $10 billion to $15 billion, while the value of graded cards alone has been calculated at about $10.8 billion. Demand has spread far beyond specialist hobby shops, with major retailers expanding card sections and imposing purchase limits as popular Pokémon releases sell rapidly and command substantial premiums on secondary markets.

The growing financialisation of the hobby was highlighted in February when a Pikachu Illustrator card previously owned by social-media personality Logan Paul sold for $16.5 million. The auction set a record for any trading card. The exceptionally rare card, created for a Japanese illustration contest in the 1990s, carries the highest Professional Sports Authenticator grade and is believed to be the only example with that rating.

Trading activity is expanding at the mass-market level as well. eBay recorded about $2.62 billion in individual trading-card sales during 2025, excluding sealed boxes, packs, sets and bulk lots. Walmart’s marketplace reported a 200% increase in trading-card sales, while Target said its card business grew nearly 70%, largely because of Pokémon demand.

Crypto entrepreneurs see an opportunity in the cumbersome mechanics behind those transactions. Physical cards can take weeks to authenticate and grade, while conventional sales may involve listing fees, payment processing, packaging, insurance and repeated shipping between owners.

Blockchain platforms are attempting to separate ownership transfers from physical movement. Under the model, an authenticated card is placed in a professional vault and represented by a digital token. The token can then be bought or sold while the physical card remains in storage, with delivery required only when an owner chooses to redeem it.

Courtyard has become one of the largest operators using the approach, offering digital packs linked to real graded Pokémon and sports cards held in custody. Its marketplace allows owners to trade vaulted cards digitally or request physical delivery. The platform has processed roughly $139 million in volume over a 30-day period, demonstrating that tokenised collectibles can attract substantial activity outside traditional NFT artwork markets.

Collector Crypt has also expanded rapidly, alongside smaller platforms such as Phygitals. Tokenised trading-card activity reached hundreds of millions of dollars during parts of 2026, helped by collectors who are comfortable treating blockchain tokens as transferable claims on authenticated physical property rather than purely digital collectibles.

Abu Dhabi-based ATH Labs is pursuing the same opportunity with Deadstock, a platform operating in closed beta on the Arbitrum blockchain. The company is concentrating on highly graded Pokémon cards, particularly PSA 10 examples, and has partnered with Japan Trading Card Center to secure access to a steady supply of cards from Japan’s extensive collector ecosystem.

That supply strategy reflects the industry’s biggest unresolved problem. Blockchain can make settlement nearly instantaneous, but faster technology does not guarantee liquidity. Sellers naturally gravitate towards marketplaces with more buyers, while buyers prefer venues offering deep inventories and extensive histories of completed transactions.

eBay therefore remains difficult to displace. Its enormous pool of buyers and sellers gives collectors price references for thousands of cards, including specimens that may trade only occasionally. Tokenised platforms must reproduce that network effect while also persuading users to trust vault operators, redemption procedures and the relationship between a blockchain token and the physical asset backing it.

Pricing can be particularly difficult because two copies of the same Pokémon card may command sharply different values. Condition, grading, centring, provenance and scarcity can all influence the price, and rare examples may change hands too infrequently to establish a dependable market value.

Another complication is the composition of blockchain trading volumes. A significant share of activity on some platforms comes from digital pack openings and instant buyback mechanisms rather than conventional collectors repeatedly buying and selling individual cards. That makes headline transaction figures an imperfect measure of underlying secondary-market liquidity.

The enthusiasm also carries familiar speculative risks. Pokémon card prices depend heavily on scarcity, nostalgia, collector sentiment and social-media attention rather than earnings or cash flows. Randomised packs have additionally drawn comparisons with gambling as buyers chase exceptionally valuable cards hidden among lower-priced products.

Arabian Post – Crypto News Network