Pokémon buying and selling playing cards may very well be the subsequent real-world asset to maneuver onchain at scale, doubtlessly bringing a $21.4 billion market to the blockchain.
“Pokémon and different [trading card games] are about to have their ‘Polymarket second,’” stated Bitwise analysis analyst Danny Nelson on Thursday.
“I count on the Pokémon growth can be sticky — a type of moments the place an ‘solely in crypto’ innovation breaks into the mainstream. Kinda like what Polymarket did for prediction markets.”
RWA crypto tokenization has boomed right into a $28.2 billion market in 2025, however it’s virtually solely catered to TradFi belongings like shares, treasuries, commodities, personal credit score and actual property.
Whereas this provides improved advantages equivalent to 24/7 buying and selling and potential value financial savings, it doesn’t rework them as “adequate digital rails exist already,” Nelson stated.
Nevertheless, Pokémon card buying and selling may benefit much more from the blockchain, Nelson stated, noting that sellers nonetheless need to bodily ship their Charizard, Pikachu and Gardevoirs to patrons.
Pokémon ETFs sooner or later? Nelson stated it’s doable
He famous that the inefficient resolution nonetheless noticed market chief Whatnot facilitate $3 billion in gross sales final yr. “This market stays largely casual. You don’t see Pokémon ETFs or funding funds, and also you in all probability received’t for some time. However perhaps not so long as you’d suppose.”
Pokémon playing cards and different buying and selling card video games like Magic: The Gathering have been round for about three many years, lengthy earlier than non-fungible tokens had been ever an idea.
A brand new market chief is paving the way in which
Nelson’s feedback come as Collector Crypt just lately emerged as a tokenization platform for promoting Pokémon playing cards on Solana, enabling quick trades and worthwhile exits.
The token backing Collector Crypt, CARDS, has already risen 10-fold to a fully diluted volume of $450 million since launching final Saturday, Nelson identified.
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“Merchants are dashing to cost in revenue-generating potential,” Nelson stated, noting that it’s signaling an annualized income of $38 million. He added that a lot of the “early hype” rests on these yields doubtlessly flowing again to token buybacks.
The Pokémon card buying and selling has additionally pushed demand for Collector Crypt’s Gacha Machine undertaking, which has taken in $16.6 million in income during the last week.
NFTs clock most buying and selling quantity since January
In the meantime, NFT trading volumes rose 9% month-on-month to $578 million in August, their largest tally since January, crypto analytics platform DappRadar stated on Thursday.
Regardless of the 9% rise, the sale rely fell 4%, exhibiting that “fewer belongings traded palms, collectors are paying extra per sale,” DappRadar stated.
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