Morning Minute: Tokenized Pokémon Cards Just Went Parabolic

Catching 'em all just got a bit easier, at least for those already operating on-chain.

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

Today's top news:

Tokenized basketball cards (NBA Top Shot Moments) kicked off the last NFT run.

Are tokenized Pokémon cards going to kick off the next one?

Tokenized Pokémon cards are seeing a massive spike in demand, catalyzed by the debut of Collector Crypt’s Solana token CARDS and a wave of gacha-style “pack” NFTs that can be redeemed 1:1 for graded physical cards held in third-party vaults.

How it works:

And the market has liked the debut, with Collector Crypt’s CARDS token soaring to a $450M FDV at peak on Wednesday.

“Pokémon and other TCGs are about to have their ‘Polymarket moment.’ [CARDS’] roaring success is putting eyeballs on Collector Crypt and the entire tokenized Pokémon cards market.” - Danny Nelson, Bitwise

Pokémon is the world’s highest-grossing media franchise - and now it’s gaining popularity on-chain.

The big question always is - why tokenize onchain?

Well the benefits are clear, just like they were back in NBA Top Shot’s heyday.

Then Collector Crypt has added their own unique spin and benefits, specifically their 90% buyback program for floor support, and their promise to reinvest 100% of their fees into building out the ecosystem.

That combination of floor support and ecosystem growth, along with the existing and rising popularity, makes these cards very attractive to bid.

And we know there is a lot of money in the crypto space ready to fire at collectibles (see the 2021 NFT boom).

Expect Pokémon values to continue to rise as this on-chain trend continues.

As for the CARDS token, it’s still early and they have a lot to prove - but they’ve certainly captured lightning in a bottle here in September 2025…

A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

Here's a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:

Section dedicated to headlines in the AI sector of crypto:

Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:

More News

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