Pokemon cards have developed into a multibillion-dollar alternative asset market, with their estimated value now reaching between $10bn and $15bn. As collectors spend millions on rare items, cryptocurrency companies are exploring whether blockchain technology can make buying and selling the cards faster and more efficient.
The scale of the market has been highlighted by record sales and growing demand from mainstream shoppers. Long queues have formed outside retailers including Costco, while Target and Walmart have also become part of the expanding trading-card economy.
One of the most expensive sales involved Logan Paul’s Pikachu Illustrator card, which changed hands for $16.5m. The transaction underlined how far the market has moved beyond traditional collecting, with rare cards increasingly treated as valuable assets.
Trading cards have recently outperformed both the S&P 500 and bitcoin, according to the source article. eBay’s role also demonstrates the size of the industry: the online marketplace recorded $2.62bn in card sales during 2025.
That growth has attracted blockchain startups, which believe digital ownership could address some of the weaknesses of the existing market. ATH Labs is among those companies, with its Deadstock project focused on turning high-grade physical Pokemon cards into digital assets recorded on a blockchain.
Under the model, the physical cards would be stored securely in vaults while their ownership was represented digitally. Supporters believe that approach could modernise a market that remains fragmented and can be slow to trade.
However, creating a digital version of a card is only part of the challenge. For the system to compete with established marketplaces, it would need enough liquidity to allow buyers and sellers to trade easily and regularly.
That is a significant obstacle for new entrants. eBay already benefits from a large and established user base, giving it a network-effect advantage that blockchain startups will find difficult to match.
The Pokemon card boom has therefore created an opportunity for crypto companies, but also exposed the limits of using new technology to reshape an established market. Tokenisation may offer a more streamlined way to represent ownership of valuable cards, yet it still has to attract enough participants to make those digital assets practical to trade.
For collectors, the market’s rapid expansion has increased the value of rare cards and helped turn a long-standing hobby into a major financial sector. For blockchain firms, the task is to persuade users that digital trading can offer enough convenience and liquidity to challenge platforms already handling billions of dollars in annual sales.
