Pokémon is integrating NFTs... or is it?
GC ALPHA 46
Disclaimer: None of this information should be taken as financial advice. DYOR + I will hold some of the assets that are spoken of in this newsletter.
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P2A & P2E EVENTS + SOCIALFI
The Forgotten Runiverse’s Dungeon Run event is live (win Land, Mana + Quanta)
Treeverse S1 re-launched yesterday (campaign lasts for 3 weeks)
Mantle Games Fest is live: 4 weeks, 6 games, 300K in MNT rewards
Football.fun is a new football x speculation market app (you can sign up now)
Gigaverse introduced a new dungeon with new challenges, items, tools, etc.
Monsters.fun is launching a 750-supply mint on Abstract (Top 300 gets WL)
Fishing Frenzy’s Ronin Reef Event is live with a new experience, map, and more
Avarik Saga’s Bloodlink experience is launching on the 5th of May
Pre-register for Xociety’s playtest. Complete quests and claim your EPIC Box
Abstract is hosting the Abstract Games: daily community-wide games with prizes
MARKET TALK
POKÉMON INTRODUCES DIGITAL SOUVENIRS
"Pokémon launching on Sui"- an idea that initially seemed like mere rumors. However, the rumors are true… (sort of)
So, what does integration with the blockchain look like?
Pokémon HOME is introducing collectible medals called “Digital Souvenirs”. Medals can be collected by visiting places in real life, they can be traded with other players, and sent as gifts
For context, Pokémon HOME is the ecosystem’s cloud service for Nintendo Switch and compatible mobile devices. Using the app, you can move Pokémon between compatible games, trade Pokémon, and more
Medals seem to add another layer to players’ overall “Pokémon identity”
How do medals work? (idk, tbh…)
Pokémon HOME had a privacy policy update, including Parasol Technologies as a new developer. Mysten Labs, the developer behind Sui, acquired this company in March 2025
Parasol Technologies built an end-to-end platform that allows game devs to easily integrate blockchain infrastructure into their games, including in-game item tokenization, marketplaces, and onchain gameplay
Sui also edited out “Pokémon” (as an example) from this blog, detailing how Parasol is bringing the trading card experience to the chain
To me, it seems Pokémon HOME will use the blockchain as backend infrastructure to record transactions and cryptographically verify them
Maybe even for location or event-based claims (like PoPs)
In a way, similar to how Mythical Games’ DMarket is used to facilitate a trading platform for digital assets of items in traditional games (primarily CS:GO)
The claim of “Pokémon integrating NFTs” seems a bit of a reach here, as I doubt users will ever interact with wallets (or even have one) and ever be able to trade the Digital Souvenirs outside of the app
Nevertheless, this “blockchain-lite experience” can be large in terms of validating the demand for (increased) digital ownership, potentially triggering a bunch of positive downstream effects
This also wasn’t the first time we saw Pokémon flirt with the idea of NFTs, as they filed for a patent for storing TCG cards and battles as NFTs around 8 months ago (even though they file these things all the time…)
SKY MAVIS “AXES” RAGNAROK MONSTER WORLD
Last week, Ragnarok Monster World announced it went live on Cross Protocol (a new blockchain), while launching Season 4 of the game on Ronin. A rather confusing announcement
Briefly after, both Psycheout and Jihoz (from Sky Mavis) commented on the matter:
“The team behind the game ignored our advice and has since lost favor with the community. To make matters worse, they secretly signed a deal with a separate blockchain, breaching our agreement.”
This led to Sky Mavis ending their professional relationship with the team, and their assets being removed from Sky Mavis products (including their NFT collections) within the next 48 hours
Rangarok’s NFT collections can, however, remain on another Ronin-based marketplace, like OpenSea
The team will no longer receive the spotlight or benefits from previous collaborations, nor support the ZENY token launch
“tried to go web 2 against our recommendation. then tried to pivot back to web3 but done poorly. at the end of the day, nothing unique and just a mediocre clone of clash royale with some small nft implementation”
These statements created some friction with players and investors of the game, pointing out the sudden change in sentiment towards the game
Pointing out that when players are this involved in your ecosystem (esp. financially), these types of decisions are much more impactful
The Ragnarok team commented on the matter, arguing:
That there was no “secret agreement” that breached the deal
They honored all their contractual obligations and didn’t violate any agreements
Discussions to have TGE outside of Ronin were initiated by Sky Mavis itself
Who’s right and who’s wrong? We don’t know. But the community of holders took a big hit here…
