What to Know

  • Pokémon trading cards are now estimated to represent a market of roughly $10 billion to $15 billion.
  • Demand has spilled into major retailers, with shoppers lining up before dawn for new card releases and platforms reporting sharp sales growth.
  • Logan Paul sold a rare Pikachu Illustrator card for $16.5 million, reportedly earning more than $8 million in profit.
  • Target said trading card sales rose nearly 70% last year, while Walmart reported a 200% jump in trading card sales on its online marketplace.
  • eBay recorded $2.62 billion in card sales in 2025, reinforcing its role as a dominant marketplace for collectibles trading.
  • Pokémon card values rose 28% this year, while the S&P 500 gained about 13% and bitcoin fell 29% over the same comparison.
  • Blockchain startups are tokenizing high-grade physical cards by storing them in vaults and issuing digital ownership tokens.
  • The biggest challenge for crypto-native card platforms is building enough liquidity to compete with established marketplaces such as eBay.

Pokémon Cards Move From Hobby Shelves to Alternative Assets

Pokémon trading cards are no longer just nostalgic collectibles traded at hobby shops or stored in childhood binders. The market has developed into a large and increasingly financialized corner of the collectibles economy, with estimates placing its current size at roughly $10 billion to $15 billion. That growth has attracted traditional collectors, social media-driven buyers, alternative asset investors and now blockchain startups that see an opportunity to modernize how physical cards change hands.

The strength of demand has become visible far beyond specialist card stores. In British Columbia, hundreds of shoppers lined up outside a Costco at 3:30 a.m. on a cool April morning to buy Prismatic Evolutions Pokémon card boxes priced around C$100 each. Those same boxes often appeared on secondary marketplaces such as Facebook Marketplace at several times the retail price, reflecting both scarcity and speculative resale activity.

Large retailers have also felt the surge. Target said its trading card sales were up nearly 70% last year, driven largely by Pokémon, and said it plans to expand the amount of store space dedicated to trading cards as part of its growth strategy. Walmart reported a 200% jump in trading card sales on its online marketplace last year. Both companies have imposed purchase limits on trading cards in an effort to curb scalping, a sign that retail supply has struggled to keep pace with buyer demand.

Record Sales and Market Performance Fuel the Narrative

High-profile transactions have helped push Pokémon cards deeper into the investment conversation. Logan Paul recently sold a rare Pikachu Illustrator card for $16.5 million, reportedly earning more than $8 million in profit. The buyer was AJ Scaramucci, founder of venture capital firm Solari Capital and son of financier Anthony Scaramucci. Sales of that size are unusual, but they help frame premium cards as trophy assets with global attention.

Market performance has added to that perception. Pokémon card values rose 28% this year, outperforming the S&P 500, which gained about 13%, and bitcoin, which declined 29% over the same comparison. While collectible markets are not directly comparable to liquid public securities or crypto assets, the contrast has strengthened the argument that rare cards have become a serious alternative asset category for some buyers.

Market-size estimates vary because trading cards are bought and sold through fragmented channels that include dealer networks, local stores, conventions, private sales and online marketplaces. Kovoy VC pegged the market at around $13 billion in 2024, Mordor Intelligence places it around $15 billion in 2026, and TCGCharts estimates that the market capitalization of every graded card is around $10.8 billion today. Together, those estimates point to a market large enough to attract venture-backed infrastructure builders.

The Trading Process Still Looks Outdated

Despite growing demand, the mechanics of trading high-value cards remain slow and fragmented. Collectors may wait weeks or months to have cards professionally graded, then list them on marketplaces that can involve fees, shipping delays and disputes over authenticity or condition. Once sold, a physical card typically has to move through the mail, creating friction and risk at every step.

That process looks especially dated to investors accustomed to instant digital transactions. In financial markets and crypto markets, assets can often be bought, sold and settled quickly. In collectibles, however, the physical nature of the asset creates logistical bottlenecks. A rare Pokémon card may be valuable, but it is not naturally easy to trade at speed, borrow against or move between owners without handling the object itself.

This gap between financial demand and outdated market plumbing has created an opening for blockchain companies. Their argument is straightforward: if a professionally graded card can be stored securely in a vault, ownership of that card can be represented digitally and transferred on-chain without moving the physical item each time. The card remains in custody, while the token acts as the transferable proof of ownership.

How Tokenized Pokémon Cards Work

Tokenized card platforms generally start by placing a physical collectible into a secure, professionally managed vault. The card is typically graded by an established authenticator, with particular focus on high-end grades such as PSA-10, the highest grade awarded by Professional Sports Authenticator. A digital token is then created to represent ownership of that specific physical card on a one-to-one basis.

Once tokenized, the digital representation can trade while the underlying card remains in storage. An owner who wants the physical item can redeem the token for delivery, but the main premise is that many transfers can happen without repeatedly shipping the same collectible. Supporters say this could reduce costs, speed up settlement and make high-value cards easier to trade around the clock.

The approach resembles broader real-world asset tokenization, where physical or traditional financial assets such as gold, Treasury bills, stocks and private credit are represented on blockchain networks. In each case, the appeal is not that the physical asset disappears, but that ownership and settlement may become more efficient through digital infrastructure.

Deadstock and the Push to Tokenize High-Grade Cards

Deadstock, a platform from ATH Labs, is one of the crypto-native projects aiming at this market. The Abu Dhabi-based startup was co-founded by Dominic Jang, a longtime Pokémon card collector and traditional finance veteran. Deadstock is running a closed beta on the Arbitrum blockchain and focuses on high-value, professionally graded Pokémon cards.

The company’s model is built around vaulting physical cards and pairing them with blockchain tokens. ATH Labs is betting that the next phase of growth in collectibles will depend not simply on producing more cards, but on making existing high-quality cards easier to trade, finance and potentially use as collateral. In a market without a central registry or clearing house, tokenized ownership could appeal to participants seeking clearer custody and faster settlement.

ATH Labs is also trying to stand apart through inventory access. The company has partnered with Japan Trading Card Center, known as JTCC, which operates a large Japanese online marketplace for mystery card packs. The agreement gives Deadstock exclusive access to tokenizing JTCC’s inventory and sourcing network, according to ATH Labs. Jang has argued that the relationship gives the platform access to a continuously replenished pool of cards that would be difficult for a new Western marketplace to replicate.

JTCC reportedly booked about 2.4 billion yen in profit for the period from Dec. 2024 to Nov. 2025 and had total assets of 6.9 billion yen, based on publicly available documentation. For a tokenized collectibles platform, supply matters because every digital card must be backed by a physical card. Without reliable access to desirable inventory, even a technically functional marketplace may struggle to attract serious buyers and sellers.

Early Crypto Collectibles Platforms Show Demand

Other blockchain-based card platforms have already shown that there is some appetite for vaulted collectibles traded through crypto rails. Courtyard, one of the better-known platforms in the sector, offers digital packs tied to physical collectibles held in a vault. It currently processes roughly $139 million of volume over 30 days and is running at an annualized fee rate of about $48 million, according to DeFiLlama data.

Collector-Crypto and Phygitals are also active in tokenized trading cards. Collector-Crypto has $148.2 million in annualized fees and $77.8 million in 30-day volume, while Phygitals has $15.2 million in annualized fees and $7.4 million in 30-day volume. Those figures suggest that a market is forming, though it remains much smaller than the activity seen on established card marketplaces.

Market participants are also watching Asia-based MemeStrategy, which says it launched the world’s first tokenized Pokémon trading card fund. The product is designed to give professional investors access to PSA-10-graded Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat cards. The move highlights how tokenization is not limited to individual collectors, but may also be used to package collectibles exposure for more specialized investor groups.

Liquidity Is the Central Problem

The biggest obstacle for tokenized card platforms is not whether a Pokémon card can be represented on a blockchain. That is already technically possible. The harder problem is whether enough buyers and sellers will gather on these platforms to create deep liquidity, reliable price discovery and confidence that an owner can exit a position when desired.

eBay remains the dominant venue for trading card liquidity. The marketplace recorded $2.62 billion worth of individual trading card sales in 2025, including about $837 million of trading-card-game and non-sports cards, according to GemRate data. That total does not include sealed boxes, packs, sets or lots, meaning the broader eBay card business is larger than the individual-card figure alone suggests.

Liquidity tends to reinforce itself. Sellers go where the buyers are, and buyers go where there are enough listings, completed sales and comparable transactions to support pricing. That network effect gives eBay a substantial advantage over newer tokenized platforms. Even if blockchain settlement is faster, a tokenized marketplace still needs active users on both sides of each trade.

The challenge is particularly acute in collectibles because small differences can create large price gaps. Two copies of the same Pokémon card may differ by grade, centering, provenance or condition details that matter to collectors. Even rare cards with the same grade may not command identical prices. Some cards trade infrequently, leaving limited recent data to establish fair value.

Why Tokenization Still Has a Case

Supporters of tokenized cards argue that traditional marketplaces have their own weaknesses. Physical shipping can be slow and risky, sellers pay marketplace fees, and buyers must assess whether a card is authentic and accurately described. In a vault-based model, the card can be authenticated before entering the system and then remain in custody while ownership changes digitally.

For collectors, the appeal may be convenience as much as speculation. If a buyer can obtain verified ownership immediately and choose later whether to redeem the physical card, the experience may feel closer to modern digital markets. ATH Labs has said its goal is to make the blockchain mostly invisible to users, allowing collectors to buy, hold, sell or redeem without focusing on the settlement technology underneath.

Still, the risks remain clear. Collectibles are speculative assets, and prices can be influenced by nostalgia, scarcity, social media attention and shifting buyer sentiment. A record-setting Pikachu sale shows that the top end of the market can command extraordinary prices, but it does not guarantee that every buyer will find a higher bid later. Tokenization can improve market infrastructure, but it cannot eliminate valuation risk.

The Next Test for Crypto Collectibles

The Pokémon card boom has created a rare convergence of nostalgia, retail demand, alternative investing and crypto infrastructure. Blockchain startups believe that vaulted, tokenized cards can make collectible ownership faster, cleaner and easier to trade. Incumbent marketplaces, however, still control the deepest pools of buyers, sellers and pricing history.

For FXCOINZ, the key question is whether tokenized Pokémon cards can move beyond novelty and become a preferred venue for serious collectors. That will depend on supply, trust, user experience and, above all, liquidity. If enough collectors decide that digital ownership of vaulted cards is more efficient than shipping physical cards through traditional channels, tokenized collectibles could become a durable crypto use case. If not, they may remain a specialized corner of a much larger card market still dominated by familiar platforms.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Why are Pokémon cards being treated like an asset class?

Pokémon cards are being treated like an asset class because the market has grown to an estimated $10 billion to $15 billion, with high-grade rare cards attracting large sums, institutional-style interest and strong secondary-market activity.

How much did the Pikachu Illustrator card sell for?

Logan Paul sold a rare Pikachu Illustrator card for $16.5 million and reportedly made more than $8 million in profit from the sale.

What does it mean to tokenize a Pokémon card?

Tokenizing a Pokémon card means storing the physical card in a secure vault and issuing a digital token that represents ownership of that specific card. The token can trade while the card remains in custody.

Why are blockchain startups interested in trading cards?

Blockchain startups see trading cards as a fragmented market where digital ownership, faster settlement and vaulted custody could reduce some of the friction associated with grading, listing, shipping and verifying physical collectibles.

What is Deadstock?

Deadstock is a platform from ATH Labs that is running a closed beta on the Arbitrum blockchain and focuses on tokenizing high-value, professionally graded Pokémon cards stored in secure custody.

Why is liquidity such a major challenge?

Liquidity is critical because a tokenized card is only useful as a tradable asset if there are enough buyers and sellers. Established marketplaces such as eBay already benefit from deep user networks and large histories of completed sales.

How large is eBay’s trading card business?

eBay recorded $2.62 billion worth of individual trading card sales in 2025, including about $837 million of trading-card-game and non-sports cards, based on GemRate data.

Are tokenized cards risk-free?

No. Tokenization may improve settlement and custody, but collectible prices can still rise or fall based on scarcity, nostalgia, market cycles and buyer demand. A digital token does not remove valuation risk.

Could tokenized Pokémon cards become a mainstream crypto use case?

They could become a more visible crypto use case if platforms attract reliable supply, trusted custody and enough liquidity. The decisive test is whether collectors prefer tokenized trading over established venues, conventions or private physical sales.

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