Türkiye hasn’t played a World Cup match since 2002. That’s the year Kelly Clarkson won American Idol, Spider-Man was a fresh franchise, and the Turkish national team stunned everyone by reaching the semifinals. Twenty-four years later, the wait is finally over.
The team is set to face Australia in the Group D opener on June 13/14, 2026, at BC Place in Vancouver. And while the football world is watching for the on-pitch drama, the crypto industry has turned this World Cup into its largest integration with a global sporting event yet.
Crypto’s World Cup moment
Kraken announced itself as the Official Crypto Exchange Supporter of the 2026 FIFA World Cup on June 9, 2026. The partnership includes fan activation programs and ticket giveaways, the kind of consumer-facing push that signals crypto exchanges are no longer content to just sponsor jersey patches and call it a day.
Then there’s ADI Predictstreet, the tournament’s official prediction market partner. The platform is using Chainlink oracles exclusively to handle automated match result resolution and payouts across all 104 games. In English: Chainlink’s infrastructure is the plumbing that ensures prediction market bets settle accurately and automatically on-chain, without anyone needing to manually verify scores or trigger payments.
