AJC reveals why Pokémon cards have an edge over NFTs and meme coins. “I would actually first contend with whether it’s NFTs or meme coins. It’s a mixture of both, and I think that’s kind of fine. What matters is that both of those were cultural asset trades. We ascribed high cultural value to NFTs in 2021, and we ascribed high cultural value to meme coins in 2024 and 2025. The reason they went down is that the cultural value wasn’t actually there. If you ask 100 people, ‘What are Bored Apes?’ or ‘What are Pudgy Penguins?’ most of them probably won’t know. We definitely overindexed on how culturally valuable these assets were, even though that’s exactly where they derive their value from. There are no cash flows here. All that matters is whether the asset is desirable. Is there cultural significance or status associated with it? Meme coins are similar, although I’d say that’s true to a slightly lesser extent. It’s like, ‘I’m buying WIF because WIF is funny, and everyone else thinks it’s funny.’ But then you realize, ‘Wait, I actually overestimated how many people think this is funny. It’s really just me and my crypto buddies.’ Trading cards, however, don’t run into that problem. Ask 100 people if they’ve heard of Bored Apes, WIF, or Pokémon cards. Pretty much 100 out of 100 people will say they’ve heard of Pokémon. That’s the advantage of trading cards, especially Pokémon cards. They already have cultural value outside of crypto. Everyone knows about them. They’re desirable even to people who have nothing to do with crypto or investing. People just like Charizard, Pikachu, or someone like Shohei Ohtani and want to collect cool memorabilia.”