Onchain Pokémon Card Gacha Spending Hits Record $324M in June
Onchain gacha spending, the practice of buying randomized packs of tokenized trading cards, reached a record $324 million in June 2026, according to Blockworks Research data cited by Cointelegraph Magazine. That figure is up sharply from roughly $50 million a year earlier.
The surge came during a difficult month for crypto markets. Bitcoin fell more than 20% to hit a 21-month low, and spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $4.5 billion in outflows in June, Cointelegraph Magazine reported.
Gacha, a mechanism adapted from Japanese vending machines, lets buyers pay a fixed price for a randomized item. Platforms such as Collector Crypt and Courtyard apply the model to trading cards by accepting physical cards, often ones already graded by companies like PSA, Beckett or CGC, storing them in vaults, and issuing NFTs tied to specific copies. Buyers who open a pack receive a token backed by a real card, which can be held, traded, sold back to the platform or redeemed for the physical item.
Cointelegraph Magazine noted that the value of these NFTs depends on the assumption that the vault operator actually holds the exact card and grade claimed, exposing users to custodial risk at a time when grading firms report rising counterfeit activity.
Pokémon cards are a central driver of this activity. Research firm Circana found Pokémon was the top-selling toy brand in the US in 2025, generating $2.5 billion in sales, an 87% increase from the prior year. Demand for grading services has also spiked, with PSA temporarily suspending submissions across four service tiers in June while working through a backlog of nearly 10 million cards, per the report.
The broader physical card collectibles market has been valued at $9.2 billion by Global Market Insights and $15.11 billion by Mordor Intelligence, according to the report.
Based on reporting by cointelegraph.com.
