The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off on June 12 with the United States hosting Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. It’s a marquee opener for a tournament that has expanded to 48 teams for the first time, and it arrives just three days after Kraken was named FIFA’s Official Crypto Exchange Supporter.
The USMNT enters Group D ranked 17th in the FIFA standings. Paraguay sits at 41st. Australia and Turkey round out the group.
Kraken secured its FIFA partnership on June 9, 2026, positioning itself as the tournament’s designated crypto exchange across all 16 host cities in the US, Canada, and Mexico. The deal gives Kraken promotional activations at stadiums, fan zones, and digital touchpoints throughout the tournament.
Neither the United States nor Paraguay has launched an official fan token or crypto sponsorship tied to the World Cup. Club teams across Europe and South America have been issuing fan tokens for years through platforms built on Chiliz (CHZ) and Avalanche (AVAX). National teams, especially those playing in the tournament opener, have largely sat on the sidelines.
The strategy mirrors what FTX attempted with its naming rights deal for the Miami Heat’s arena before its collapse in 2022. Crypto.com paid a reported $700 million for naming rights to the former Staples Center in Los Angeles.
