Gotta Catch ‘Em All? Tokenized Pokémon Cards Are Exploding Right Now
Tokenized Pokémon playing cards are seeing renewed curiosity currently, partly as a result of latest debut of a token for a Solana-based undertaking referred to as Collector Crypt.
Like a number of different tasks, Collector Crypt provides prospects “packs” that include NFTs, which might be redeemed for bodily buying and selling playing cards which can be graded and saved by third-parties. The undertaking additionally operates a market for connecting consumers and sellers.
The undertaking carried out a presale for its CARDS token on Solana utilizing the protocol Metaplex, and its market cap jumped to a peak of $85 million on Wednesday from $23 million a day earlier than, in keeping with crypto knowledge supplier CoinGecko. CARDS’ market cap just lately stood at $74 million.
Though the token’s value has elevated 210% over the previous day to $0.19, a warning supplied by CoinGecko on behalf of Rugcheck.xyz said that the token’s creator could make unrestricted modifications to its provide, and amongst different issues, disable promoting.
On an FAQ web page, Collector Crypt stated it’ll present particulars on how CARDS might be built-in into its services and products within the weeks following the token’s debut. On X, the agency stated “100% of web funds” will go towards buying precise Pokémon playing cards for its ecosystem.
Decrypt reached out to Collector Crypt for clarification and remark, however didn’t instantly obtain a response.
Buying and selling Pokémon playing cards on Solana?
Collector Crypt is bringing real-world collectibles to Solana and unlocking liquidity on Raydium to energy their token ecosystem
A fast thread on how buying and selling playing cards are evolving utilizing DeFi 👇 pic.twitter.com/RY6sc3fyyo
— Raydium (@RaydiumProtocol) September 2, 2025
Collector Crypt says its hottest product is a digital gacha machine. Resembling loot bins in video video games, the service gives a person with a random NFT that might be tied to a “legendary” Pokémon card, however is extra prone to be “unusual.”
The upshot is that Collector Crypt gives every gacha buyer with a buyback supply that lets them trade the NFT for 90% of the cardboard’s resale worth, as decided through eBay and different platforms. The undertaking stated on X in late August that its gacha app has generated $70 million in gross sales.
There are presently greater than 18,000 Pokémon playing cards listed on Collector Crypt’s web site, however it’s removed from the one place that individuals can discover digital representations of Pokémon playing cards.
On Wednesday, an NFT tied to a 2002 Snorlax card was amongst a number of that have been listed for over $1,000 on market Courtyard. And on Phygitals, somebody pulled an NFT tied to a 1999 Raticate card from {the marketplace}’s “claw machine” recreation.
Courtyard debuted on the Ethereum scaling community Polygon in 2021, and greater than 3 million buying and selling playing cards have been “minted” as NFTs by its platform, in keeping with a Dune dashboard. Along with Pokémon, Courtyard helps tokenized collectibles from numerous sports activities.
In August, Courtyard generated $78 million price of secondary gross sales quantity on Pokémon NFTs, its finest month on report, in keeping with a separate Dune dashboard.
2.34 btc
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psa 10 first version holo charizard pic.twitter.com/cgsOz3PgUq
— niko (@nikokampouris) September 3, 2025
Tokenized Pokémon playing cards may theoretically be leveraged as collateral in decentralized finance, or DeFi, however the apply will not be commonplace.
Previously, Collector Crypt has teased the flexibility for customers to lend their NFTs. And on Wednesday, there have been glimmers of different experimentation.
First it was soccer. Then it was soccer (for Individuals). Now it seems that somebody could also be engaged on a undertaking that blends crypto buying and selling and Pokémon, in the same technique to Soccer.enjoyable and Pigskin.enjoyable, in keeping with an picture shared by Phygitals on X.
A screenshot of Phygitals’ platform confirmed a “Pokécoin Market,” the place numerous Pokémon appeared to have their very own corresponding cryptocurrencies—much like how these sports activities video games have tokenized high gamers. A Phygitals spokesperson confirmed to Decrypt that the picture represents the mockup of an idea “in the intervening time.”
Pokémon and different TCGs are about to have their “Polymarket second.” Right here’s why you ought to be paying consideration:
Most of crypto’s teal world asset (RWA) performs cater to well-established TradFi markets, like treasuries, actual property, gold and shares. Positive, tokenization brings these…
— Danny Nelson (@realDannyNelson) September 3, 2025
Will tokenized Pokémon playing cards be a short-term blip? One analyst thinks the idea has actual endurance, likening the increase of tokenized buying and selling card video games (or TCGs) to the rise of prediction markets.
“Pokémon and different TCGs are about to have their ‘Polymarket second,'” Danny Nelson, analysis analyst at crypto asset supervisor Bitwise, stated on X on Wednesday. “[CARDS’] roaring success is placing eyeballs on Collector Crypt and your entire tokenized Pokémon playing cards market.”
