Blockchain Startups Target $15B Pokémon Card Market With Tokenization

June 30, 2026 — The booming Pokémon trading card market, now valued at roughly $10-15 billion, has attracted blockchain startups aiming to modernize how collectors trade high-value cards. Companies like ATH Labs’ Deadstock are tokenizing professionally graded cards on blockchain networks, storing physical assets in vaults while enabling faster digital ownership transfers. The move comes as trading cards have outperformed both the S&P 500 and bitcoin this year, with the asset class rising 28% compared to 13% and a 29% decline respectively.

Immediate Details & Direct Quotes

The Pokémon card market has exploded beyond hobby-store collectibles into a serious alternative asset class. Big-box retailers are feeling the impact directly — Target reported trading card sales up nearly 70% last year, while Walmart saw a 200% jump in online marketplace card sales. Both retailers have implemented purchase limits to curb scalping.

E-commerce giant eBay processed $2.62 billion in individual trading card sales in 2025, according to GemRate data. The marketplace remains the dominant venue for price discovery in the sector, with deep history of completed sales helping establish card values.

“We aren’t just tokenizing a card, we are tokenizing a lot of cards,” said Dominic Jang, co-founder of ATH Labs, which operates the Deadstock platform on Arbitrum. The Abu Dhabi-based startup has partnered with Japan Trading Card Center (JTCC), which operates a large Japanese online marketplace for mystery card packs, granting Deadstock “exclusive” access to tokenizing JTCC’s inventory.

“There has never been a central registry or clearing house for this market,” ATH argued in a recent research report, pointing to fragmentation as an opportunity for blockchain-based ownership and settlement infrastructure.

Market Context & Reaction

Celebrity attention has amplified the market’s visibility. Influencer 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.

Platform volume shows early adoption of blockchain-based card trading. Courtyard, a leading platform offering digital packs corresponding to vaulted physical collectibles, processes roughly $139 million in volume over 30 days, running at an annualized fee of about $48 million, according to DeFiLlama data. Other platforms including Collector-Crypto and Phygitals report $148.2 million and $15.2 million in annualized fees respectively.

However, crypto research firm House of Chimera cautions that much of this volume comes from gamified pack openings and instant buybacks rather than peer-to-peer trading between collectors. The firm also notes that many tokenized-card platforms rely on the same grading and storage providers, making underlying infrastructure relatively similar across competitors.

Background & Historical Context

Tokenization — putting physical assets like gold, Treasury bills, stocks, and private credit onto blockchain networks — has become one of the biggest trends in cryptocurrency. Proponents argue it reduces costs, makes settlement more efficient, and enables around-the-clock trading.

The trading card market’s growth has been remarkable. Kovoy VC pegged the value at around $13 billion in 2024, while Mordor Intelligence estimates $15 billion by 2026. TCGCharts calculates the market cap of every graded card at roughly $10.8 billion today.

Still, the infrastructure for trading cards hasn’t kept pace with demand. Collectors face weeks or months of waiting for grading, inefficient marketplaces with high fees, and physical shipping requirements — a process that seems antiquated to investors accustomed to instant financial transactions.

Deadstock aims to solve this by placing physical cards, primarily PSA-10s (the highest grade from Professional Sports Authenticator), in professionally managed vaults. Each physical card matches one-to-one with a digital token representing ownership. The token can change hands while the underlying card remains in storage, with redemption available for physical delivery.

What This Means

The tokenization model faces significant hurdles, primarily liquidity and network effects. eBay’s massive user base and transaction history create a self-reinforcing advantage — sellers go where buyers are, and buyers benefit from deep pricing data.

– Liquidity challenges: A tokenized card trading among a small user base could be less liquid and harder to price than the same card on eBay, particularly for rare cards that trade infrequently.

– Supply advantage: ATH’s partnership with JTCC provides access to a continuously replenished inventory pool, which the company claims is difficult for Western competitors to replicate.

– User experience focus: ATH says its goal is making blockchain invisible to users — collectors buy, hold, sell, or redeem without thinking about settlement technology.

– Market cycle risk: Speculative assets carry inherent volatility, with prices driven by nostalgia, scarcity, and online attention rather than traditional investment fundamentals.

“It turns out people just wanted tokenized PSA 10 first edition shadowless charizards,” said VC firm Paradigm’s general partner, who goes by “Frankie,” in an X post. The ultimate test will be whether enough collectors choose to trade tokens rather than list on eBay, attend conventions, or keep cards in binders.

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