Onchain TCG Gold Rush

1️⃣ Courtyard Raises $30M as Onchain Trading Cards Boom

Courtyard, the trading card platform turning collectibles into NFTs, announced a $30M Series A round this week led by Forerunner Ventures, with prominent “Web2” VCs like NEA and Y Combinator joining in, among others.

The raise comes during a breakout stretch for onchain trading card packs — especially Pokémon cards (which some call “RWAs”) on Solana — which have generated $6.4M+ in revenue and over $95M in total volume so far. According to a Dune dashboard by @zkayape, a platform called Collector Crypt leads the way with $1.2M/month in revenue mostly driven by “gacha” mechanics (randomized rewards), while newer names like TCG Emporium and Phygitals are already pulling six figures in volume. One pack even revealed a $11.3K Mario Pikachu card.

With tokenized TCGs gaining clear PMF — solving fraud, fees, and logistics — Courtyard's new funding is likely to bring more heat to this growing sector of alternative investments.

2️⃣ Google Cloud Adds Self ZK-ID for Web3 & AI

ZKPs are increasingly bridging to the real world, with Google Cloud, this week, announcing an integration with Self Protocol — the zero-knowledge proof-of-humanity project that doesn’t rely on biometric hardware.

Self will be embedded in Google Cloud’s AI search tools and used for sybil resistance in their testnet faucet, with a mainnet version to follow that includes OFAC-screened access. The system supports biometric passports from 129 countries and national IDs from 35, with attestations issued on Celo — where Google Cloud has been running validators since 2018.

This move brings more privacy-preserving identity to the Web3 stack, just as demand for AI-aligned sybil resistance (prevention of bot overruns) continues to grow.

3️⃣ StarkWare Buys Into Daydreams

StarkWare confirmed this week that they’ve purchased $DREAMS, the token of autonomous agents platform Daydreams, directly from the project’s foundation in an OTC deal.

Beyond the buy, they also doubled the STRK/DREAMS liquidity on Starknet via Ekubo pools — a notable move as Daydreams continues expanding. My colleague William Peaster has written extensively about Daydreams, which he sees as a new blueprint for how AI can operate onchain. The platform’s agents have extensive functionality, ranging from content creation to gaming and even market analysis.

4️⃣ Ether Rock Sells for $300K

One of crypto’s oldest NFT memes — Ether Rock #59 — sold this week for 82.4 ETH (~$300K), flipping for more than 2x what it went for in a loan default back in April.

Launched in 2017 and famous for being simply images of clipart rocks, the Ether Rocks grew to become quite the “high-status” asset in the 2021 NFT mania. NFTs overall have seen tremendous (relative) momentum recently alongside ETH’s repricing, with CryptoPunks being bought up alongside other blue chips of last cycle. 

If NFTs are really back, don’t be surprised to see more fossil-era JPEGs coming out of hibernation.

5️⃣ Farcaster Adds Collectibles to Casts

Farcaster rolled out a new feature this week that lets users turn any cast into a 1/1 NFT via 24-hour auctions settled in USDC, starting at $1. 

Built on Base, early mints are already flowing as, well, collectibles and “cast-as-art” drops. The idea is to give creators a way to earn from the jump, without needing a massive following. There are already a series of experiments being jumpstarted around these, from tokenized versions to 

Overall, Farcaster’s pushing hard to become the go-to place for crypto-native creators. Let’s see if the cast auctions catch fire.