Pokémon TCG Outpaces NFT Trading With Rapid Growth

Over the past months, Solana has seen a noticeable rise in activity around Trading Card Games (TCGs). Projects combine gacha mechanics with NFT ownership, and platforms such as Collector Crypt, Phygitals, and Emporium are beginning to define a new niche that mixes nostalgia with blockchain-native speculation.

From Slow Build to Sudden Breakout

Based on Dune data, TCG-related activity on Solana started gaining momentum in early 2025. By late March, gacha spending (+Buyback mechanism) had already surpassed NFT marketplace trading, reaching $3.8M in weekly volume compared to NFTs at $3.6M.

The real inflection point came in August. Weekly gacha spending jumped to $10.1M, nearly three times higher than NFT trading volume. By September 1, gacha activity had soared to more than $20M in a single week, marking a 360% increase over the previous month. In contrast, NFT volumes continued to decline, sliding to just $1.9M weekly.

This shift highlights a broader change in user behavior: speculative gaming mechanics are now attracting more liquidity than traditional NFT marketplaces.

September Momentum: $10.7M in Five Days

Between September 1 and September 5, Solana TCG users spent more than $10.7M on gacha spins. Collector Crypt led with a 51.5% share, followed closely by Phygitals at 47.5%. Phygitals’ surge has been particularly striking, as its weekly gacha volume jumped more than 10x compared to the previous week. Emporium accounted for just 1.1% of spending.

Cumulatively, more than $88.6M has been spent across these three platforms to date. Collector Crypt alone represents over $81M of that total, underlining its dominance in the sector.

Revenue Driven by Gacha Mechanisms

Revenue generation for these platforms comes primarily from gacha mechanics, which offer card buybacks at 85% of market value. This model creates a feedback loop, fueling repeated spins and consistent income.

• Collector Crypt leads with $9.9M in total revenue, peaking at $927K in the week of August 25.

• Phygitals surpassed $1M in weekly revenue on September 1, bringing its cumulative total to $1.6M.

• Emporium trails far behind, with $21K in weekly revenue and just $92K overall.

The dominance of Collector Crypt is clear, but Phygitals’ recent acceleration shows it is closing the gap in terms of user engagement.

Active Wallet Trends: Phygitals Outpaces Collector Crypt

While Collector Crypt commands higher gacha spending and revenue, Phygitals attracts more users. Between 53.6% and 93.4% of weekly active wallets belong to Phygitals.

During the first week of September, more than 2,970 wallets interacted with Phygitals, nearly four times the 776 active wallets on Collector Crypt. Cumulatively, Phygitals has attracted 14.3K active wallets compared to Collector Crypt at 4.3K.

Wallet Spending Shows Stark Contrasts

Spending patterns per wallet differ dramatically across platforms. On Collector Crypt, the average weekly outlay climbed from around $400 earlier this year to $11.5K in August, with lifetime averages reaching $18.6K per wallet. Emporium sits in the middle with $2,817 per wallet, while Phygitals is much lower at $499.

Yet these averages mask how most users spend far less. Nearly 74% of Collector Crypt wallets have spent under $100 on gacha, and only 7.5% fall in the $1K–$5K range. Phygitals shows an even heavier retail skew, with 88% of users spending less than $100. Emporium is the most retail‑dominant, where 99% of users fall below the $100 mark.

This skew illustrates the role of high-spending “whales” in driving total volumes, particularly on Collector Crypt.

Market Impact: Native Tokens and Network Effects

Collector Crypt’s dominance has translated into rapid token appreciation. Its native token surged more than 10x in early September, with hourly trading volume hitting a record $10.3M in a single hour. The token effect has amplified attention around the platform and reinforced its market position.

At the same time, increased activity has spilled over to other platforms, particularly Phygitals. Even without a native token, Phygitals has benefited from sector-wide hype, recording its sharpest rise in both spending and user activity to date. Many users may also be drawn to the platform because it is tokenless, leaving open the possibility of a lucrative future airdrop.

A New Onchain Speculative Arena

The rise of TCG gacha on Solana underscores a broader trend: blockchain users are gravitating toward interactive, gamified financial products rather than static NFT ownership. With weekly volumes now outpacing the NFT sector by a wide margin, platforms like Collector Crypt and Phygitals are carving out a new space in Solana’s onchain economy.

Whether this growth proves sustainable or turns out to be a short-lived cycle remains uncertain. What is clear is that with weekly gacha volumes surpassing $20M and cumulative spending above $88M, TCGs on Solana have quickly evolved from a niche experiment into one of the most dynamic corners of the network.

Stay tuned for further insights into how these platforms evolve and shape the future of DeFi trading on Solana.
This piece is part of our Solana Data Insights series. Make sure to subscribe to Solana Data Insights for weekly onchain analysis.

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