Pokémon trading cards may become the next large-scale on-chain real-world asset, bringing a $21.4 billion market onto the blockchain.
Bitwise research analyst Danny Nelson stated on Thursday, “Pokémon and other [trading card games] are about to have their ‘Polymarket moment.’”
“I expect the Pokémon craze to be sticky—similar to the moment when ‘innovations unique to the crypto space’ enter the mainstream, just like Polymarket did for prediction markets.”
The real-world asset (RWA) crypto tokenization market is projected to expand to $28.2 billion by 2025, but it is almost entirely focused on traditional financial assets such as stocks, government bonds, commodities, private credit, and real estate.
Nelson noted that while this brings advantages like round-the-clock trading and potential cost savings, it does not fundamentally change these assets. He pointed out that this is because these assets already have sufficiently developed digital infrastructure.
However, Nelson highlighted that Pokémon card trading would benefit significantly from blockchain, as sellers still need to physically ship cards like Charizard, Pikachu, and Gardevoir to buyers.
He mentioned that even with such an inefficient solution, market leader Whatnot still facilitated $3 billion in sales last year. “This market is still quite informal. There is currently no Pokémon ETF or related investment fund, and it is unlikely to happen in the short term, but this process may be faster than expected.”
Pokémon cards and other trading card games like Magic: The Gathering have existed for nearly thirty years, long before the concept of NFTs was born.
Nelson made the above comments following the recent launch of Collector Crypt as a card tokenization platform on Solana (SOL). The platform supports on-chain sales of Pokémon cards, enabling quick transactions and profitable exits.
Nelson noted that the CARDS token issued by Collector Crypt has increased tenfold since its launch last Saturday. Its fully diluted market cap (FDV) reached $450 million.
Nelson stated, “Traders are racing to price its revenue potential, with current annualized revenue reaching $38 million.” He added that much of the “early hype” stems from the possibility that these earnings could flow back into token buybacks.
Pokémon card trading has also driven demand for the gacha project under Collector Crypt, which generated $16.6 million in revenue over the past week.
According to crypto analytics platform DappRadar on Thursday, NFT trading volume increased by 9% in August, reaching $578 million, the highest since January.
Despite the 9% increase in trading volume, DappRadar reported that the number of transactions fell by 4%, indicating that “the number of trading assets has decreased, and collectors are paying more per transaction.”
Related: Media company associated with Donald Trump Jr. expects Dogecoin (DOGE) mining revenue to reach $100 million
Original article: “Bitwise: Pokémon cards are about to have a ‘Polymarket moment’”
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