WAX Collect Profiled in Eilers & Krejcik Gaming's Landmark Report on the $17.6 Billion Collectibles Economy

NEW YORK, August 31, 2026. WAX Collect, the InsurTech and specialty MGU built exclusively for luxury assets and collectibles, has been profiled in The Collectibles Economy: Repacking, Live Breaking & the Convergence With Gaming, a special edition report from Eilers & Krejcik Gaming (EKG) produced in collaboration with Collect Alpha.

The report's two platform case studies cover Whatnot and Rips by Triumph. WAX Collect is the only company to receive a dedicated profile in its infrastructure section on vaulting, custody and insurance.

WAX Collect did not commission, sponsor or contribute to the report, and learned of its inclusion when the report was published.

A market gaming can no longer treat as adjacent

EKG is a research and advisory firm covering the gaming industry. Its special edition reports have previously examined daily fantasy sports, lottery courier, sweepstakes gaming and prediction markets. This edition turns to collectibles.

EKG models roughly $17.6 billion of normalized U.S. trading card transaction activity at current 2026 run-rates, about 1.9 times its modeled 2025 level. It estimates that 23% of that activity now flows through game-driven digital formats such as repacks and digital pack ripping. Live commerce accounts for a further $7.3 billion.

The report sizes the category, defines its formats, and sets out where the mechanics, audiences and capital of collectibles overlap with gaming over the next 12 to 24 months.

Insurance named as core infrastructure

The report devotes a full section to vaulting, custody and insurance. Its argument: every repack, break and digital rip resolves against a physical card that someone has to hold, value and insure, and that layer becomes load-bearing as inventory values and transaction velocity rise.

Among its findings:

• Insurance is what makes high-value inventory scalable for platforms and operators.

• Vaulting, custody, insurance, authentication and valuation are forecast to become a standalone investable category.

• EKG expects risk transfer to become a standard line in operator economics within 24 months.

• The insurance market for collectibles is fragmented, and its providers are pivoting from individual collectors to the platforms and dealers that hold other people's assets.

What the report says about WAX Collect

EKG's profile describes WAX Collect as specialist insurance infrastructure for collectibles and calls it "the only MGA spanning the full collectibles universe." It concludes that the company's insurance-native backing and four distribution channels signal that the insurance layer is being built for this market specifically.

The profile cites:

• A multi-carrier, A+ rated strategy with modular coverage structures matched to client risk appetite.

• Direct to consumer: more than $2 billion in collections managed.

• Brokerage: more than 150 agencies representing roughly 50,000 agents.

• Commercial: dealers, retailers and major repack operators.

• Embedded: collectibles insurance built into partner platforms.

• Investors including AV8 Ventures, which is backed by Allianz, and Slow Ventures, with angel investors including DraftKings co-founder Paul Liberman, Larry Fitzgerald Jr. and Josh Hart.

From the CEO

"Every asset class that matured did so because someone built the infrastructure underneath it," said Rich Vinhais, CEO of WAX Collect. "Equities got clearing. Real estate got title. Collectibles grew into a multi-billion dollar market without that layer, so we set out to build it. We did not ask to be in this report and we did not know it was coming. An independent research firm mapped the entire market, went looking for the insurance layer, and found us."

"A card, a watch or a work of art now changes hands at the speed of software while the object itself never leaves a vault," Vinhais added. "Our focus is the physical asset: knowing what it is worth and protecting it wherever it sits and whoever holds it. We are building the protection layer for every collectible, in every category, on every platform. This report tells us the market is arriving where we have been building."

About the report

The Collectibles Economy: Repacking, Live Breaking & the Convergence With Gaming was published in August 2026 by Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, LLC in collaboration with Collect Alpha. The report is proprietary to EKG and is not distributed by WAX Collect. The full report is available for purchase from EKG at ekgamingllc.com.

About Eilers & Krejcik Gaming

Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, LLC is a research and advisory firm that publishes research across gaming equipment, sports betting and interactive gaming.