Why Michael Eisner says, NFTs are hastening Topps’ digital transformation.

According to Michael Eisner, the trading card industry is “25 percent digital” and growing, thanks in part to blockchain technology.

Following an explosion in the digital economy, Topps, one of the world’s premier playing card makers, recently declared its plan to launch a public offering.

Topps chairman Michael Eisner said in an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday that the sports and entertainment side of the market (the firm still manufactures confections like gum) is 25 percent digital and -. As the business goes public, Eisner claims the explosion of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, on blockchains would “likely cater to everybody.”

“The digital [side of the business] is growing really fast,” said Eisner:

“With blockchain, we’re going to be able to participate in the secondary market. Before, we only participated when we put the analog cards out.”

Topps aims to go public through the merger of a SPAC, or special-purpose acquisition business. Mudrick Capital, which is already listed on the Nasdaq, will buy Topps in this situation. This will effectively stop the conventional path of an initial public offering. Topps is currently valued at $1.3 billion by the SPAC, and the transaction is scheduled to close this year.

In October 2007, Eisner, the former CEO of The Walt Disney Company, acquired Topps through his investment fund and Madison Dearborn Associates. The chairman of Topps claimed that he acquired the business with the intention of “making it digital.”

“This is the icing on the cake — going digital completely, with the analog still in place.”

While cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies gained popularity, the company’s digital arm ventured into the NFT room by developing fashionable digital collectibles. Topps Digital unveiled NFTs of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (and his winter mittens) at the 2021 presidential inaugural ceremony in January.

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