Morning Minute: Tokenized Pokémon Cards Just Went Parabolic

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:

• Crypto majors chop with ETH leading; BTC at $111,000
• CFTC clears Polymarket for US operations; departing chair issues warning
• Federal Reserve to host Payments Innovation conference ft. crypto and AI
• Pump Fun flips Hyperliquid in daily revenue; PUMP jumps to $4.2B FDV
• Collector Crypt CARDS token jumps another 50% to $450M FDV as Pokémon craze continues

🎴 Tokenized Pokémon Cards Just Went Parabolic

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

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

📌 What Happened

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:

• Packs → NFTs → Physical: Users buy digital packs and each reveals an NFT tied to a specific graded card (PSA/CGC/etc); users can hold the NFT, trade it, or redeem the physical slab
• 90% buyback: Collector Crypt offers to repurchase the NFT for 90% of the card’s resale value (benchmarked to eBay and other markets), creating a quasi-floor and faster liquidity
• Token economics: CARDS ran a Metaplex presale and the team has stated that “100% of net funds” go to buying real Pokémon cards for the ecosystem.

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

🗣️ What They’re Saying

“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

🧠 Why It Matters

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.

• Ease: Digital cards don’t have to be stored/protected from the elements
• Verified: Virtually no risk of fake or counterfeit cards
• Liquidity: Tokenized cards can be bought and sold anywhere in the world 24 hours per day, instantly, and with reliable tracking

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…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Memes

A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

• Crypto majors are mixed with ETH leading; BTC -0.5% at $111,000, ETH +1% at $4,420, XRP -0.3% at $2.84, SOL -1% at $208
• M (+10%), PUMP (+9%) and CRO (+4%) led top movers
• The Bitcoin ETFs saw $300M in net inflows on Wednesday, bringing their past 7 session total to $1.07B
• The CFTC officially approved Polymarket to operate in the U.S.
• The Federal Reserve announced it will host a Payments Innovation Conference for Oct 21, examining stablecoins, tokenized assets, AI and DeFi
• Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said he wants half of Coinbase’s code to be AI-written by October
• US Bank resumed bitcoin custody with ETF integrations for institutions, citing clearer guardrails
• The Ethereum validator entry queue has swollen to 860,000 ETH ($3.8B) and a new ATH, staking demand tied to treasury buyers like SharpLink and BitMine
• Ray Dalio tied Bitcoin’s rise to debt-driven pressure on fiat, though he still prefers gold while seeing weak outlook for some currencies

In Corporate Treasuries

• The Trump family’s American Bitcoin (ABTC) soared then plunged then on its Nasdaq debut, ends up 17% to $8.04
• Portage Biotech rebranded as AlphaTON Capital and announced plans to start a $100M TON corporate treasury

In Memes

• Meme coin leaders are red on the day down 1-5%; DOGE -1%, Shiba -1%, PEPE -2%, PENGU -4%, BONK -4%, TRUMP -1%, SPX -1%, and FARTCOIN -5%
• Trollface creator Carlos Ramirez granted exclusive IP rights to the Solana meme coin TROLL team in a six-figure deal (TROLL +15% to $190M)
• LOOK rallied 81x to $12M leading onchain SOL runners; STREAMER +800% to $5M

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

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

• Pump Fun flipped Hyperliquid in daily revenue, $2.55M to $2.45M as PUMP jumped 8% to $4.2B FDV
• Lido debuted simplified Lido Earn vaults for easier DeFi strategies
• Etherealize raised $40M led by Electric Capital and Paradigm to bring Ethereum to Wall Street, building tokenization, settlement, and privacy tools for institutions

🤖 AI x Crypto

Section dedicated to headlines in the AI sector of crypto:

• Overall market cap even at $12.7B, leaders were mixed
• FARTCOIN (-5%), VIRTUAL (+1%), TIBBIR (-8%), aixbt (-4%) & ai16z (-4%)
• nuit (+27%) and BNKR (+27%) led top movers

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

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

• ETH NFT leaders were red down another 1-5%; Punks -6% at 44 ETH, Pudgy -1% at 9.9, BAYC -2% at 8.9 ETH
• A new wallet swept 10 CryptoPunks for $2.1M (funded from Coinbase Prime) helping drive the floor up to 48 ETH
• Mocaverse announced staking for both MOCA and Mocaverse NFT holders to access the $20M MocaPortfolio
• Pixel Vault was taken over by the original comic artist Chris Wahl and Josh Blaylock
• Abstract NFTs were mostrly green, led by Gigaverse ROMs (+10%)