Want Free Rare Pokémon Cards? Courtyard Is Giving Them Away via NFTs

By Kate Irwin

Gotta catch ‘em all—on the blockchain? 

Collectible card vaulting platform Courtyard is giving away hundreds of mystery card packs that contain tokenized Pokémon cards, the marketplace exclusively shared with Decrypt’s GG. Each digital pack will contain an NFT tied to one graded Pokémon card, which can then be traded if they please.

Come November 21, card collectors will be able to open their virtual packs and see which Pokémon card they “caught.” Digital cards can also be redeemed for their physical versions, which are stored via vaulting firm Brink’s, if desired.

The Pokémon cards available include vintage base set cards, modern cards, and promo cards, with a 2020 Sword & Shield Shiny Star Charizard and a 1998 Starter Red Green Gift Set Holo Scyther hidden among the packs. All cards have been graded, which means their condition has been judged by a third-party firm and the card is sealed in a case.

Two of the cards that can be found in the mystery packs. Image: Courtyard.

Courtyard is working with crypto tech startup Privy and Ethereum NFT collection Chimpers to release the free collection, which are being doled out free of charge as an early Thanksgiving gift across multiple drops.

How many card packs are on offer? Courtyard will give away 100 packs per day across four daily drops, which means 400 total packs will be offered to the public between Tuesday, November 14 and Friday, November 17.

Courtyard plans to set aside 10 packs for collectors who write the best responses to its Thanksgiving-themed questions, according to details provided by the company.

Previously, Courtyard has seen nine similar card drops sell out across 1,700 cards, the company said, bringing about $200,000 worth of graded Pokémon on the blockchain as tokenized real-world assets.

Courtyard's "Web3 Week of Thanks" packs. Image: Courtyard

Why put Pokémon cards on the blockchain? Well, tokenization and NFTs establish digital scarcity and a unique identifier for digital assets, making their crypto component virtually impossible to replicate. Such tech allows marketplaces like Courtyard to offer tokenized versions of actual Pokémon cards as certificates of authenticity, which can be redeemed for the real thing.

Last year, Courtyard raised $7 million in seed funding from New Enterprise Associates, Y Combinator, OpenSea Ventures, VaynerFund, Brink’s, and others.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

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