{"id":794,"date":"2025-11-26T13:52:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T05:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.midytech.com\/?p=794"},"modified":"2025-11-26T13:52:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T05:52:07","slug":"whatnots-11-5b-valuation-global-tcg-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midytech.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/26\/whatnots-11-5b-valuation-global-tcg-boom\/","title":{"rendered":"Whatnot\u2019s $11.5B Valuation &amp; Global TCG Boom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On October 28, live shopping platform\u00a0<strong>Whatnot<\/strong>\u200b raised\u00a0<strong>225<em>M<\/em> <em>in<\/em> <em>Series F funding<\/em>,<em>reaching<\/em> <em>a<\/em> 11.5B valuation<\/strong>. Founded in 2019 in Los Angeles, Whatnot initially focused on\u00a0<strong>trading card auctions (TCGs)<\/strong>\u200b via livestreams, competing with eBay by integrating cross-platform sales and algorithmic pricing. It later expanded to\u00a0<strong>fashion, sneakers, and global markets<\/strong>\u200b (Canada, Europe), riding the 2021 trading card boom.Meanwhile,\u00a0<em>Hasbro\u2019s\u00a0Magic: The Gathering<\/em>\u200b drove 90% of its Q3 profit, fueled by IP crossovers like\u00a0<em>Final Fantasy<\/em>(\u00a5200M\/day) and upcoming\u00a0<em>Marvel\u2019s Spider-Man<\/em>(Nov). Japan\u2019s TCG market also thrives:\u00a0<strong>20\u201339-year-olds<\/strong>\u200b (30% male, 20% female) drive growth, with\u00a0<strong>new fans joining yearly<\/strong>\u200b for\u00a0<strong>collecting, IPs, and unboxing<\/strong>.<strong>Key trends<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u2022<strong>Japan<\/strong>:\u00a0<em>Pok\u00e9mon TCG<\/em>dominates (TOP5: 4 spots),\u00a0<em>Yu-Gi-Oh!<\/em>and\u00a0<em>Hololive OCG<\/em>rise.\u00a0<strong>Happinet\u2019s survey<\/strong>\u200b shows adult demand surging.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u2022<strong>Bandai<\/strong>:\u00a0<em>Gundam GCG<\/em>(673B yen sales, +21%) launched globally, with tournaments in Bilibili World, Europe.\u00a0<em>One Piece OCG<\/em>adopts new 2026 formats.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u2022<strong>Tomy<\/strong>:\u00a0<em>Duel Masters<\/em>(VTuber collabs) and\u00a0<em>Disney Lorcana<\/em>(female-focused) attract diverse players.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On October 28, live shopping p&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[232,231,230],"class_list":["post-794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investment","category-people","tag-bandai","tag-card","tag-whatnot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midytech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midytech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midytech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midytech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midytech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.midytech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":796,"href":"https:\/\/www.midytech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794\/revisions\/796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midytech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midytech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midytech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midytech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}