Onchain platforms emerge for trading ownership of physical Pokemon cards

Tokenized platforms that let users trade ownership of physical Pokemon cards onchain while the cards remain in vaults are emerging in the trading card market, which is estimated at as much as $15 billion, CoinDesk reported. Deadstock, a blockchain platform from Web3 startup ATH Labs, is testing the model on Arbitrum (ARB) by storing PSA 10 Pokemon cards in vaults and issuing one-to-one tokens tied to each card so ownership can change hands without moving the physical asset. House of Chimera, a crypto research firm, said a significant share of trading volume on these platforms comes not from peer-to-peer sales of individual cards between collectors, but from game-like card pack openings or the platforms' instant-buy features. CoinDesk said the key question is whether tokenized platforms can achieve liquidity and price discovery on par with the existing market, given that sales of individual trading cards on eBay alone reached $2.62 billion in 2025.