Business 4 min read By Callum Montgomery
Pokémon Cards Test a New Market Structure as Onchain Spending Hits $324.6m
The trading-card boom is creating a business around custody, tokenised ownership and instant liquidity, even as the physical asset remains offchain.
The striking number in Pokémon cards this year is 27.9%. That is the year-to-date rise in PokéViews’ PV100 index of premium English cards. The S&P 500 was up 13.9% through 13 August, while Bitcoin remained sharply negative for 2026.
For markets, however, the more consequential number may be $324.6m. Blockworks Research says that was the value of onchain spending across tokenised collectible-card gacha platforms in June alone. Collector Crypt accounted for $209.5m, nearly two-thirds of the total.
The two figures describe different parts of the same shift. First, a large pool of physical collectibles has developed credible price benchmarks and adult investment demand. Second, technology companies are building market infrastructure designed to make those assets easier to exchange.
A tokenised card is not simply an NFT image. The model starts with an authenticated physical card placed in a professional vault. A digital token is then linked to the specific item. Ownership can move onchain without moving the card, while a redemption mechanism allows the holder to withdraw the physical asset.
That structure attacks several costs at once: repeat shipping, settlement delays and the need to move a fragile high-value item every time it is sold. It can also expand the potential buyer pool. The trade-off is that the market becomes dependent on a custody layer that remains resolutely centralised.
The Block reported that tokenised Pokémon marketplaces generated around $7.4m in weekly revenue in early May, up 337% year on year. Courtyard held a 46% share that week, ahead of Collector Crypt and Phygitals. By June, Blockworks data showed Collector Crypt dominating broader gacha spending.
The business case sits on a sizable underlying market. Mordor Intelligence estimates the global trading card game market at $15.11bn in 2026, rising from $13.28bn in 2025. It forecasts $24.36bn by 2031. Different research firms define the category differently, but the direction points toward deeper monetisation of adult collectors, digital distribution and secondary trading.
The comparison with listed assets needs discipline. PV100 is not an investable index. It equally weights 100 valuable, liquid English ungraded cards and rebalances monthly. A physical portfolio would incur transaction, authentication and storage costs. Its liquidity is not comparable with the S&P 500.
Tokenisation may narrow part of that gap, but it creates new operational dependencies. Investors must assess the vault, insurance, legal claim on the card, smart-contract behaviour and the platform’s ability to honour redemptions. The blockchain can record a transfer; it cannot guarantee that an offchain object is still where the operator says it is.
There is also a market-design question. Randomised digital packs are driving significant volume, including high-priced offerings. That turns a custody and settlement product into a behavioural engagement business, potentially making revenue more cyclical and sensitive to speculative enthusiasm.
Pokémon’s 30th Celebration expansion launches on 16 September. It should provide a useful stress test. If the infrastructure can convert a major physical-demand event into liquid, orderly secondary trading without weakening redemption credibility, tokenised cards could become a durable niche within the broader real-world-asset market.
