Talking Tokens
Talking Tokens
September 15, 2026·29:29

From Pokémon Cards to Birkins: Inside Beezie’s $200M+ Volume | Andrea Miele

In today's episode of Solana Sessions, Jacquelyn sits down with Andrea Miele, CEO and founder of Beezie, to explore how gamification, tokenization and onchain infrastructure are changing the way consumers discover and buy collectibles. Andrea breaks down how Beezie grew from tokenized trading cards into a broader gamified commerce platform, recently crossing $200 million in volume and $100 million in total revenue. They discuss Beezie's expansion into luxury markets through its partnership with The Luxury Closet, how users can access everything from Pokémon cards to luxury handbags through its digital claw-machine experience, and why Andrea believes the future of shopping is about more than simply searching, clicking and buying. She also explains why Beezie abstracts away the blockchain experience for mainstream users, how onchain transparency can help build trust, why Solana has become a key ecosystem for the company, and where gamified commerce could expand next.

Timestamps: 00:10 Andrea journey from collector to founder 02:26 How shopping behavior is changing 03:20 How Beezie's digital claw machine works 05:25 Why trading cards found product-market fit 06:49 Building through doubt as a founder 07:51 What drove Beezie's growth 08:51 Growing to $200M in volume and $100M in revenue 11:28 User growth and retention 12:35 Expanding beyond crypto-native collectors 13:03 Beezie's move into luxury 14:48 How the luxury experience works 15:49 Vaulting and securing physical assets 16:17 Authenticating luxury goods 17:16 Why Beezie is selling “the chase” 18:14 The future of gamified commerce 19:19 What Beezie learned from sneakers 20:17 What's next for tokenized commerce 21:07 Bringing luxury buyers onchain 23:25 Building trust through authentication 27:23 What traditional collectibles markets get wrong 28:46 Why onchain transparency matters 29:36 Who is the future Beezie customer? 30:10 Andrea's advice for founders 30:38 Why Beezie chose Solana

This episode is a part of the Solana Sessions campaign between Token Relations and the Talking Tokens podcast, diving into founders' journeys and startups building on Solana. Check out the accompanying newsletter on www.stratamedia.co/token-relations/solana

As part of the episode, we’re giving away one code for the fastest listener: LUX92244527. Head to solana.beezie.com/claw/Platinum-TCG-9 and sign up for an account, and apply the promo code for the premium Platinum TCG claw machine.

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Follow us  Jacquelyn on X: /jacqmelinek  Talking Tokens on X: /_talkingtokens  Talking Tokens on Instagram: /_talkingtokens

Follow Andrea Miele https://x.com/AndreaMYellie https://www.instagram.com/beeziedotcom/

JM
Jacquelyn Melinek

From Pokémon Cards to Birkins: Inside Beezie’s $200M+ Volume | Andrea Miele

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