Coinbase Teases Digital Pokemon Card Pack Service Linked to Physical Cards

Coinbase, the U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, is teasing a digital card-pack opening service linked to physical Pokemon cards.

Bitcoin.com News reported on September 29 that Coinbase had previewed the smartphone-based feature through its official channels on September 28. The service is believed to allow users to buy and store Pokemon card packs through the Coinbase app. The company has not disclosed a formal launch date.

Coinbase did not directly mention Pokemon cards when it previewed the service. But it acknowledged the connection by responding positively to a user's post describing it as an "on-chain Pokemon card pack."

Services that let users trade physical collectibles in digital form have already been launched multiple times in the U.S. Courtyard is a representative example. It stores physical Pokemon cards in specialized vaults and issues non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, representing ownership of those cards. GameStop also launched Power Packs, a digital product linked to physical cards, in the first half of this year.

Coinbase's move into the collectible card business is viewed as an extension of its "Everything Exchange" strategy.