A pristine, first-edition Holographic Charizard Pokémon card from 1999 is going up for auction Friday, tokenized via Ethereum scaling network Polygon and auctioned by collectibles platform Courtyard.

Polygon Labs and Courtyard have teamed up to tokenize the PSA 10-graded card, securely stored in a Brink’s vault, with an estimated value of $250,000. The 30-day online auction aims to demonstrate blockchain’s potential in the collectibles market, the companies said.

“This auction isn’t just about a Charizard card; it’s about showing how blockchain can revolutionize the collectibles world,” said Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron, in a statement. “From traditional collectors to DeFi enthusiasts, we’re inviting everyone to experience the benefits of on-chain ownership.”

The digital platform enables the sale of physical items (like cards) via blockchain tokens, or NFTs, with features including secure storage, high-resolution 3D models, and instant global trading. Collectors can access an immutable ownership record and trade without physical shipping complications. Owners who want to have the physical card in hand can have it shipped to them from the vault at any point.

According to a Polygon Labs representative, the company “purchased the card directly from a reputable seller in the trading card space.” Similar cards have been sold for prices between $264,000 and nearly $400,000 since 2020, per data from Public.com.

“Tokenization is changing the game for collectibles,” said Courtyard CEO Nicolas le Jeune, in a statement. “With this auction, we’re not just spotlighting an iconic card; we’re demonstrating how Courtyard’s platform is transforming how people collect and trade.”

Editor’s note: This article was written with the assistance of AI. Edited and fact-checked by Andrew Hayward.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Thursday that it has charged Cumberland DRW, a Chicago-based crypto trading firm, with various securities charges.

In an announcement, the SEC said that Cumberland operated as an unregistered dealer in handling more than $2 billion worth of cryptocurrencies. 

The complaint alleges that Cumberland traded “crypto assets that are offered and sold as investment contracts on third-party crypto asset exchanges.”

The SEC complaint mentions five assets that the regulator considers to be securities, including Solana, Polygon, Cosmos, Algorand, and Filecoin. The complaint notes, however, that it is a “non-exhaustive” list of such assets.

“Despite frequent protestations by the industry that sales of crypto assets are all akin to sales of commodities, our complaint alleges that Cumberland, the respective issuers, and objective investors treated the offer and sale of the crypto assets at issue in this case as investments in securities,” said Jorge G. Tenreiro, Acting Chief of the SEC’s Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit (CACU), in a statement.

“Cumberland profited from its dealer activity in these assets without providing investors and the market with the important protections afforded by registration,” Tenreiro added.

Cumberland did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s questions, but posted a statement on Twitter (aka X) that it wouldn’t be “making any changes to our business operations or the assets in which we provide liquidity” due to the lawsuit. 

“We’re ready to defend ourselves again,” it added, referring to a 2018 lawsuit from the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission against DRW, which the investment firm won.

Cumberland is the crypto trading subsidiary of Chicago-based investment firm DRW. It specializes in making institutional-sized markets in Bitcoin and other digital assets.

The SEC has hit a number of digital asset firms—including major American exchanges Coinbase and Kraken—with lawsuits for allegedly selling unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrencies. 

But the approach has attracted the ire of those in the industry and some U.S. politicians, who claim the regulator and its Chair Gary Gensler have adopted a “regulation by enforcement” approach to watchdogging the industry.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication with additional details.

Blockchain-based predictions platform Polymarket is seeking an additional $50 million in new capital amid potential plans to launch a token, The Information reported Monday.

Investors in the round will be issued token warrants, giving them the right to purchase tokens if Polymarket decides to launch them in the future, the outlet reported, citing anonymous sources.

It’s unclear whether the tokens will provide additional utility within the platform. Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan did not immediately return a request for comment.

It follows the platform’s $70 million raise over two rounds this year, where it picked up $25 million in a Series A led by General Catalyst and an additional $45 million in Series B funding with participation from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

Polymarket has been riding high on U.S. election fervor this year, capturing nearly $1 billion in trade volume from those taking a punt on who will become the country’s 47th president.

Built atop the Ethereum and Polygon blockchain networks, Polymarket allows participants to buy and sell shares in different possible outcomes of real-world events. The price of one “share” in a prediction market ranges from $0.00 to $1, and its price correlates to its percentage chance of winning, or its “odds.”

While speculation on who will take the White House in November has helped fuel the platform’s recent surge in popularity, Polymarket also allows betting on pop culture, sporting, and other political events.

And traders are taking outsized bets this year, with total trading volume reaching its highest point on the platform last month, topping out at $472.8 million, according to one Dune dashboard.

Its popularity has led those within the Polymarket community to opine in recent weeks on the possibility of a token to help fund operations, as the platform does not currently charge users fees.

Traders have started altering their behavior in response to the speculation, attempting to artificially boost their trading volume in hopes of securing a larger airdrop reward, according to whales, or large traders, monitoring the activity, Decrypt previously reported.