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.

Vinyl Group, Australia’s only listed music company, has acquired the assets of London-based Serenade, a platform focused on digital and physical collectibles, in an equity-based deal valued at up to US$1.6 million. 

Vinyl launched its website last year, aiming to replicate the experience of “crate-digging” for records in digital form, CEO Josh Simons told Decrypt. The acquisition marks the group’s expansion into the UK and European markets while enhancing its offerings in the digital collectibles space. 

“The plan was always to expand Vinyl.com’s offering to include music merchandise, digital collectibles, and experiences that connect fans with creators, and the acquisition of Serenade was the next step in that process,” Simons said.

Under the terms of the deal, Vinyl has made an upfront payment of $553,000 in shares, with an additional $1 million in shares contingent upon revenue and earnings targets.

The deal was finalized over the weekend, with Vinyl notifying Serenade that due diligence requirements had been successfully met. Vinyl’s share price jumped more than 8% on the ASX on Sunday following the announcement, rising to a three-week high above $0.06.

The performance-related earn-out requires the combined business of Vinyl.com and Serenade to achieve $2.76 million in revenue and $345,000 in earnings before interest and taxes within 12 months of the acquisition.

Serenade, which operates a marketplace for both physical and digital collectibles, has previously supported over 200 global artists, including high-profile names such as Liam and Noel Gallagher, Muse, and Sum 41.

The company also has partnerships with major record labels, including Warner Music Group and Beggars Group.

Serenade operates on the Polygon blockchain, a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum. Its key product, NFC-enabled digital “Smart Formats” built atop Polygon’s infrastructure, has seen 56% month-on-month sales growth since its launch in January, the company claims.

NFC-enabled digital Smart Formats are physical collectibles embedded with Near Field Communication technology that link to a digital asset or experience, typically hosted on a blockchain. 

These formats allow users to access digital content, such as music, exclusive videos, or digital artwork, by interacting with the physical item through their smartphone or other NFC-enabled devices.

Serenade CEO Max Shand will join Vinyl Group under a full-time employment agreement. Shand will receive five million options, vesting in stages upon achieving specific performance goals as part of his incentive package.