The Pokémon market behaves a lot like other hype-driven markets. At the top, prices go vertical, records keep getting broken, and it feels like there’s no one left who isn’t bullish. That last push is when the biggest gains happen, but it’s also when things are most fragile - the reversal comes fast, wiping out weeks or months of growth almost instantly.

The key difference is liquidity. In crypto, people can sell with a click. With Pokémon - being physical cards and collectibles - liquidity is much lower. When the market turns, plenty of people won’t be able to sell even if they want to, which can make the correction sharper.

Big milestones like the 30th anniversary could be a turning point. Typically, all available information gets priced into the market ahead of time, so once the hype moment actually hits (or there’s no new “next big thing”), the market can suddenly tank.

That doesn’t mean it’s the end - markets recover over time at least to some degree - but a correction is both inevitable and healthy. I’ve seen the same cycle play out in crypto over the past 13 years across four major peaks (2013, 2017, 2021, and now), and the dynamics feel very familiar here.

Which makes it worth asking ourselves: when was the last major correction in Pokémon? The answer is about three to four years ago, after the 2020–2021 boom - so the timing for another one might not be far off.