Pokémon Card Sales Are Surging on Crypto Platforms—Just Don’t Call It Gambling

Somewhere in Montana, a trove of Pokémon cards sits behind locked doors, anchoring a multi-million-dollar crypto market within a 28,000-square-foot facility.

CEO Tuom Holmberg told Decrypt that since Collector Crypt debuted 18 months ago, the company’s vaulting facility has become core to its branding, amid a growing number of competitors that also offer tokenized versions of the popular playing cards.

“Out of these 30 other vibe-coded platforms that followed us, probably half of them keep their inventory in their closets,” he argued, referring to a string of companies that have debuted in response to surging demand for names like Pikachu, Charizard, and Gengar.

The global market for trading cards surged to $15.8 billion in 2024 and is expected to hit $23.5 billion by 2030, research firm Strategic Market Research estimated last year. As of Friday, the global market cap for NFTs stood at $2.4 billion, according to NFT Price Floor.

NFTs fetched billions during the pandemic-era crypto boom, and while demand for digital art and profile pictures has since cooled, the technology has re-emerged as an essential building block in supporting an air of speculation that’s engulfing trading cards. 

Efficiencies aside, the technology still invites scrutiny, Holmberg noted.

“The biggest challenge that we face is walking into a card show,” he said. “You say, ‘Hey, we’re behind all of those tokenized cards on Solana,’ and 90% of the people are going to say, ‘That’s a fraud. That’s a scam. That’s a rug-pull.’”

Nonetheless, the firm’s marketing has leaned into the speculative fervor that helped influencer and wrestler Logan Paul fetch $16.5 million for a rare Pokémon card at auction in February. 

A recent video shared by Solana’s official X account highlighted the platform’s gacha machine, asking, “Would you spin for a $15,000 Pokémon card?”—a mechanism that Holmberg said echoes the traditional pack-ripping experience by spitting out random, card-backed NFTs.

The gacha gold rush

Dominic Jang, co-founder and CSO of Deadstock, another platform that offers tokenized Pokémon cards, told Decrypt that digital packs and gacha machines cater to speculators and collectors alike, who crave either “the rush and an instant exit” or the card itself.

“What’s genuinely new is that the pull now comes with instant liquidity,” he said. “Gacha and mystery packs look like a sales mechanic, […] but they’ve quietly become the on-ramp.”

Courtyard, which also specializes in NFTs tied to physical collectibles, announced this month that it had expanded the format to vintage U.S. coins. The platform also offers digital packs for other types of cards, as well as digital twins of luxury watches and comic books.

According to data from research firm Messari, the top seven platforms for tokenized Pokémon cards generated $230 million in sales via gacha games in May. That marked an increase from $32 million a year ago, when Collector Crypt and Courtyard were the main players.

Pseudonymous Messari analyst AvgJoesCrypto told Decrypt that the tenfold jump comes down to friction. While eBay buyers face counterfeit risks despite refund policies, platforms like Collector Crypt streamline ownership by enabling asset exposure in just a few clicks.

“We’re starting to see the snowball effect of something with product-market fit,” he said. “Blockchain rails are just a better medium for trading these assets once you tokenize them.”

Sales volumes, of course, cover users who try their luck repeatedly. Collector Crypt offers instant buybacks at a 10% to 15% discount compared to market prices. Last month, the firm announced that it had facilitated $1 billion in total sales over its 18-month existence.

“That’s all [our] gacha machine,” Holmberg said, noting it drives 90% to 95% of their business.

While acknowledging that the service borders on gambling, he framed it as a gamified shopping experience driven by the machine’s “positive expected value,” in which users who bet $50 receive $55 back on average. He added, “You should be able to go in and open up five to 10 packs, get a card that you want to keep, and essentially pay market price.”

Collector Crypt has made other efforts to ensure a positive experience for consumers, beyond its own platform. When it comes to safeguarding Pokémon cards in Montana, Holmberg said some of the firm’s competitors have tapped its facility for liquidity and trust.

“They are plugging directly into our trading card liquidity pool that’s being stored in our vault,” Holmberg said. “If people outside of crypto really start to take on this concept, […] you could imagine that if one of these platforms rugs, you’re going to see Reddit posts all day long.”