The legendary anime Pokémon just entered Web3 in a big way. On Wednesday, September 20, 175 Pokémon trading card packs were minted on the Polygon blockchain in a matter of seconds.
Each pack granted holders one mystery NFT that can be unveiled within 24 hours of the purchase. The Pokémon cards were pre-disclosed beforehand, but users still had to wait to see which one they’d receive. All of the packs were opened automatically 48 hours after the drop.
The mint was launched by Courtyard.io, an NFT platform built on Polygon that aims to transform the buying and selling of physical collectibles, especially trading cards. According to the company, the Pokémon NFT drop was designed as a stress-test as the platform intends to improve its services to meet greater demand.
The NFT collectibles sold for $5 a piece, and could be purchased via USDC or credit card. The collection sold out almost immediately, and the floor price for closed packs quickly rose to $50 — generating nice profits for some collectors and degens.
Furthermore, the NFTs are not just digital assets: Holders can choose to redeem them on Courtyard.io for a physical card or have them stored privately in a crypto self-custody wallet.
Courtyard.io believes that linking NFTs to physical cards can help eliminate some of the fraud that’s plagued the collectible trading card market. The company uses NFT technology to guarantee authenticity by tokenizing each physical card onchain. It also safeguards the physical items with the security company Brinks, and provides instant liquidity for the digital asset via the Courtyard.io marketplace.
According to analysts, some of the ‘2000 Base Set booster boxes,‘ which were the most rare tokenized collectibles from the Pokémon launch, are valued at over $15,000. The drop also included Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) grade 9 cards, estimated to be worth around $500.
The team at Courtyard.io said that the drop helped them make “improvements” to the platform “to keep up with demand.” It challenged collectors to “Break Courtyard.io.”
The drop was also a win for Polygon, which despite the struggling price of its native crypto $MATIC, continues to collaborate with some of the biggest Web2 and Web3 brands and companies in the world.
Polygon Thrives as Top Layer 2 Blockchain
For Pokémon fans in Web3, the latest drop from Courtyard.io is exciting news — especially considering it’s just a teaser of what’s to come. But the fact that Courtyard.io used Polygon to mint its debut Pokémon NFT collectible packs should come as no surprise. There are few blockchains that have been as active in Web3 during this bear market as Polygon.
At Rarity Sniper, we’ve covered dozens of articles about the layer 2 blockchain innovating in Web3 this year. Here are some of the top headlines:
- Casio Partners with Polygon for G-Shock NFT Drop
- Lufthansa Partners with Polygon for NFT Loyalty Program
- LimeWire Opens AI Creator Studio with Polygon
- Magic Eden Creates $1M Polygon Creator Fund for NFT Projects
- Polygon Partners with South Korea’s Telecom Giant SKT
- Polygon Overtakes Solana in NFT Sales Volume Over Last 30 Days
And here’s the rub: All of these headlines come from just the past month. One of Polygon’s goals is to onboard as many people into Web3 as possible, and right now, it looks like the layer 2 scaling solution to Ethereum is doing just that.
Polygon NFTs for a world-renowned IP like Pokémon has the potential to onboard millions of new users to Web3. And according to Courtyard.io, the party is just getting started. At Rarity Sniper, we’ll be on the lookout for any new drops or updates to the story.